Taco Bell is adding artificial intelligence to 100s of drive-thrus
Would you like AIs with that?
Depending on where you live, the next time you pull in to get a Cheesy Roll Up or Crunchwrap Supreme, you might be telling your order to a robot rather than an actual human being.
Burrito bots
Yum! Brands, Taco Bell’s parent company, yesterday announced plans to introduce AI voice tech at hundreds of the chain's US locations by the end of 2024, after successfully trialing the system at over 100 branches across 13 states. The fast food giant, which also owns Pizza Hut and KFC, said that the tech has already proved useful in easing employees’ workloads, improving order accuracy, and reducing wait times.
That third point isn’t exactly a massive problem for the burrito behemoth at the moment, though, especially compared to other major American “fast” food chains…
According to industry publication QSR Magazine’s 2023 Drive-Thru Report, Taco Bell’s already “digital-forward” drive-thrus are the speediest in the fast food game for the 3rd year in a row, with an average completion time (including taking the order, preparing the food, and closing the transaction) of just 4 minutes and 38 seconds. McDonald’s customers, by contrast, can expect to wait 6 mins and 53 secs for their meals, while Chick-fil-A scored lowest in the speed test, with an average wait time of 7 mins and 15 secs.
Although Chick-fil-A clocked in slower than the other chains reported by QSR, it did return the best accuracy score of the bunch: just 8% of customers received orders with errors, suggesting that the workers who always get Sundays off prioritize getting those sandwiches spot on, rather than slinging them out ASAP.
It will now be interesting to see whether Taco Bell’s new fleet of automaton order assistants will be able to move the needle on the chain’s current 85% accuracy rate.
