• less than 3 min read
Like the frustration of trying to buy a bottle of wine at a self-checkout, AI-powered drive-thru ordering at Taco Bell has pushed customers to the brink, and it’s got the chain reassessing its use of the technology. Taco Bell’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Mathews admitted to the Wall Street Journal this week that the restaurant has realized a bot taking orders from hungry drivers may not be the best idea.
Taco Bell has added drive-thru AI-powered ordering to 500+ locations since last year, and in March, it announced a partnership with Nvidia to help supercharge the use of the tech in its chalupa-making process. While Mathews said the AI has managed to take over 2 million orders successfully, some big blunders involving messed-up orders and customers deliberately messing with the AI have gone viral:
- In one video, an AI agent repeatedly asks the customer what they want to drink—even though the diner already ordered a Mountain Dew.
- Another video shows someone trying to order 18,000 cups of water before the tech cuts out and a (seemingly) annoyed worker jumps on to see what the heck these hooligans are doing.
Big picture: McDonald’s, Wendy’s, and White Castle have all attempted to roll out similar AI ordering with mixed results. The tech is especially limited when locations get busy, according to Taco Bell’s Mathews.—MM