Taco Bell expands AI ordering to hundreds of U.S. drive-thru locations

Why not bring AI into your dining experience? The next time you go through the Taco Bell drive-thru, you might order your Crunchwrap Supreme through a voice-activated chatbot.

Yum Brands, which owns Taco Bell, announced on Wednesday its intention to expand its voice AI technology to hundreds of drive-thru locations in the U.S. and eventually globally. The Mexican-style fast-food chain has been testing its AI ordering system in 13 states so far, and Taco Bell has now decided it’s ready to roll it out on a larger scale. “After more than two years of fine-tuning and testing our drive-thru voice AI technology, we’re confident it will help us optimize our operations and improve customer satisfaction,” Lawrence Kim, chief innovation officer at Yum Brands, said in Taco Bell’s announcement.

In the age of generative AI, companies are rushing to AI-ify their products. But customer feedback on automated systems remains a hot topic of debate. Generative AI has proven to be beneficial in some areas, but not everywhere. This week, Meta retired its celebrity AI personas due to low engagement, and Google’s AI search summary attracted false attention by recommending things to users like putting glue on pizza. While automated systems have been used in customer service and sales for years, talking to an AI at the drive-thru is a fairly new field.

Taco Bell’s chatbot builds on the restaurant’s existing digital ordering kiosks. Now, instead of telling Taco Bell employees their orders, customers will talk to a bot that relays information to a screen. Taco Bell said it designed the voice AI to take over some of the backroom work of its staff. “Benefits include reducing team member workload, improving order accuracy, providing a consistent and friendly experience, and reducing wait times, while driving profitable growth for Taco Bell, Yum! brands, and their franchisees,” the announcement said. Taco Bell had not responded to Mashable as of the publication of this article about whether the implementation of voice AI is mandatory for all franchisees.

The company also said it would “improve the ordering experience for consumers.” But interactions with chatbots don’t always go smoothly. McDonald’s learned that the hard way when it tried a similar AI ordering experience. The Golden Arches backed away from plans in June after a number of missteps that quickly went viral on TikTok. In one instance, McDonald’s chatbot accidentally added 28 orders of Chicken McNuggets.

Wendy’s is also jumping on the AI ​​ordering bandwagon: It’s allowed customers to order a Frosty through a chatbot for over a year, but many customers have begged the chain to stop doing it.

Taco Bell is forging ahead despite the failure of its fast-food rivals: Fellow Yum Brands-owned KFC is also testing voice AI in five Australian restaurants, which means that AI bots are very much on the menu, whether we like it or not.