McDonald's says it will use AI to take orders in restaurants in future, and after concluding a trial run at more than 100 locations in the US says it wants to further explore "voice ordering solutions," according to an industry media report.
Trade publication Restaurant Business quoted a statement from McDonald's to franchisees that the fast-food chain was ending a two-year trial into AI order-taking in collaboration with computer company IBM.
However the company is said to have plans to expand on its use of this emerging technology, having been testing voice AI in its drive-through restaurants, like many other US-based fast-food chains.
"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 to Restaurant Business.
Various options are now to be examined and McDonald's wants to commit to a technical solution by the end of the year, according to the report.
AI-powered software is getting better and better at engaging in conversations with people, and its speech recognition is particularly suitable for taking orders at some restaurants, as it should be sufficient to master a manageable selection of words.
So-called generative AI - such as that used in the chatbot ChatGPT - can formulate sentences at the linguistic level of a human.
In December, McDonald's also entered into a partnership with Google aimed at utilising generative AI, although the details of the deal initially remained unclear.
US competitors such as the fast food chains Wendy's and Carl's Jr. are also experimenting with the automated acceptance of spoken orders. It remains to be seen how quickly such solutions could be applied outside the US, as AI software is usually developed first in English.
