Fast food companies have been experimenting with integrating artificial intelligence into their restaurants, from Flippy the burger-flipping robot at White Castle to dynamic pricing at Wendy’s. One arena where AI seems to really be struggling, though, is at the drive-thru – and Taco Bell is the latest to experience AI mishaps at the order box. After taking 2 million orders with AI, Taco Bell has reached one conclusion: we still need humans.
From a corporate viewpoint, that’s a one time cost with a very small (likely national) ongoing component. People cost only some training up front, but then have a high ongoing cost (wages and everything that entails). Typically they are all over this.
In my area you can’t really order anything in fast food places. You have a screen where you create and pay your order, then a human just assembles it. There are still people involved, but much less than 30 years ago. Clearly they took that trade.