McDonald’s announces the termination of testing its AI-powered drive-thru ordering system for customers, following trials at over 100 locations in the United States.
The voice-operated system, known as Automated Order Taking, is a collaboration between McDonald’s and IBM since 2021. IBM acquired the McD Tech Labs business from McDonald’s, where customers simply speak their food orders and AI summarizes them into a complete order. The popularity of AI-driven ordering systems for drive-thrus has also extended to several other fast-food chains in the US.
While McDonald’s acknowledges the success of the AI drive-thru ordering system, the company sees opportunities to enhance voice-activated food ordering solutions in different formats. Despite discontinuing this service, McDonald’s will continue its partnership with IBM to develop other solutions for restaurants in the future.
IBM believes that voice-activated food ordering systems are the future and will continue to collaborate with McDonald’s on various technology projects.
Source: CNBC
TLDR: McDonald’s halts testing of AI-driven drive-thru ordering system after successful trials, while continuing to explore innovative food ordering solutions with IBM for the future.
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