McDonald’s is removing artificial intelligence (AI) powered ordering technology from its drive-through restaurants in the US, after customers shared its comical mishaps online.
A trial of the system, which was developed by IBM and uses voice recognition software to process orders, was announced in 2019.
It has not proved entirely reliable, however, resulting in viral videos of bizarre misinterpreted orders ranging from bacon-topped ice cream to hundreds of dollars’ worth of chicken nuggets.
Especially in situations like this where it’s quite possible it would cost less to go back to the basics of better pay and training to create willing workers. Maybe the initial cost was less than what they have to spend to improve things, but add in all the backtracking and cost of mistakes, I doubt it.