The fast-food industry has spent years trying to shave seconds off the drive-thru line, and artificial intelligence is now the next experiment.
Chick-fil-A says it will keep human order-takers at the drive-thru, even as it uses AI behind the scenes. CEO Andrew Cathy told CNBC, 'We’re not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers.' Chick-fil-A calls the model 'human plus.'
McDonald’s is taking a different route. It is testing Archy, an AI-powered system that takes drive-thru orders in English and Spanish and claims to be accurate more than 90% of the time. The company says the broader ArchIQ system also includes automated inventory management and equipment monitoring, and that the tools are meant to simplify restaurant operations and free employees to spend more time serving customers.
This is not McDonald’s first attempt. The company ended an earlier drive-thru voice-ordering test with IBM in 2024 after rolling it out to more than 100 U.S. restaurants, a trial that drew attention for viral videos of botched orders.
The question is not whether automation can save time. It can. The question is whether it improves the customer experience enough to justify the trade-off when the machine gets it wrong. Alex Susskind, a Cornell University professor who studies restaurant operations and hospitality technology, said the human interaction at Chick-fil-A makes long waits more tolerable. He also warned that restaurants should ask whether technology is making the customer experience 'better or more meaningful.'
The numbers come first, and so do the incentives. If AI reduces labor hours, the benefit goes to margins. If AI creates errors, the cleanup falls back on workers and customers. Keith Spencer, a career expert focused on AI’s impact on workers, said automated ordering could eliminate some repetitive responsibilities, but workers may end up handling complaints, correcting automated orders, and troubleshooting systems they did not choose.
McDonald’s is also defending a separate pricing recommendation system in court. A new lawsuit alleges the system helped coordinate higher menu prices, claims the company denies. The two technologies are separate, but they point to the same larger issue: how much control restaurants are willing to hand over to algorithms, and how much responsibility remains with management when things break.
Capital rewards clear rules, not opaque systems that shift blame when they fail. Restaurants can automate, but they cannot automate away accountability. If AI is going to sit at the drive-thru, the taxpayer and the customer should know who is really in charge when the order comes out wrong.
