AI Conquered Coding. Fast Food Is Next
Fast-food chains across the United States are rapidly adopting voice-based AI for drive-thru ordering systems. While the technology is becoming more common, its implementation is scaling quickly as chains like Taco Bell and Dairy Queen integrate it into their operations.
Why it matters
The widespread automation of customer service roles in the fast-food industry signals a significant shift in labor and consumer interaction models.
“There was no communication delay or weirdness to it. It felt completely natural,” Charpentier tells WIRED. “But just a little too pleasant to be human.”
The voice punctuated its sentences with pleases and thank yous. It was soft and friendly. Its attempts to upsell Charpentier on extra Snickers for her Blizzard were perfectly polite.
But Charpentier worked the Dairy Queen drive-thru herself as a teenager. She knew something wasn’t adding up. When she drove up to collect her Blizzard at the window of the Cary, North Carolina, drive-thru, she asked the worker in the window: Had AI taken her order?
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