McDonald’s will end its AI drive-thru technology test with IBM in over 100 restaurants by July 26, according to a memo obtained by CNBC. The partnership, which began in 2021, aimed to enhance operations with voice-activated ordering but faced challenges with interpreting accents and dialects, affecting order accuracy.
“While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” said the franchisee memo from Mason Smoot, senior vice president and chief restaurant officer for McDonald’s US. “After thoughtful review, McDonald’s has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT. … IBM remains a trusted partner and we will continue to utilize many of their other products across our system.”
Despite this, McDonald’s indicated that AI drive-thru plans may still be considered in the future. IBM stated it will continue working with McDonald’s on other projects as the test concludes.
“As we move forward, our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future,” the company said in a statement. “We see tremendous opportunity in advancing our restaurant technology and will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable solutions that will help us make an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.”
McDonald’s sold its McD Labs technology to IBM in 2021 and its predictive ordering technology, Dynamic Yield, to Mastercard later that year. A new partnership with Google Cloud was announced but details remain undisclosed.
“We’re excited to see how McDonald’s will use our generative AI, cloud, and edge computing tools to improve their iconic dining experience for their employees and their customers all over the world,” Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement at the time.
