McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, is changing its tune on artificial intelligence (AI) just a few years after the chain began a global AI partnership with IBM. The news follows a string of embarrassing viral failures with the technology.
After using AI to take people’s orders at drive-thru kiosks across 100 restaurants, McDonald’s has said the technology will now be entirely removed from drive-thrus after several issues emerged with the chain’s use of AI.
Not Going As Planned
The use of AI at drive-thrus was designed to improve McDonald’s efficiency – minimizing the length of time between customers placing orders and receiving them.
However, the AI software reportedly struggled to recognize some accents and got some orders wrong. The technology proved to be a headache for the fast-food chain after AI failings went viral on social media apps like TikTok.
Plans To Bring Back AI in The Future
“While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” said McDonald’s senior vice President, Mason Smoot.
However, the rollback of AI drive-thru technology does not seem to be a permanent move, with the company expressing “confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future.”
Viral Failures
Many of McDonald’s AI failures were recorded and uploaded online – often gaining tens of thousands of views and more. In one TikTok video, a woman becomes exasperated as she tells the AI kiosk that she wants a caramel ice cream only for the machine to keep adding stacks of butter to her order.
One popular video showed AI adding hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets to an order, while one report said an AI error had led someone to have bacon added to their ice cream.
McDonald’s AI History
McDonald’s partnered with International Business Machines (IBM) in 2021, with the hope of using AI technologies to simplify operations and increase efficiency. As part of the partnership, more than 100 restaurants saw AI drive-thru kiosks introduced.
However, after a rocky start, McDonald’s is now rolling back it’s AI advancements – with the Automated Order Tracker to be shut off in all states by the 26th of July. However, the fast food chain has stressed that “IBM remains a trusted partner” in other areas.
Social Media Reacts
Following the news of McDonald’s rolling back AI drive-thrus, social media users had strong opinions – with many saying McDonald’s should simply go back to focusing on employing people for the roles outsourced to AI.
One Twitter/X user predicted that following the McDonald’s news, “we will see more companies see that replacing people with A.I will be more challenging than first assumed.” However, another user offered a different prediction: “models are improving every day. AI order taking will be back.”
Another Company Moves Forward With AI
While McDonald’s rolls back it’s embrace of AI, other companies are heading in the opposite direction. One of these companies is Apple, which embraced AI with their announcement of their iOS 18 software earlier this month.
When launching iOS 18, Apple announced a deal with OpenAI’s ChatGPT – allowing Siri to source answers from AI and allowing AI-augmented improvements in photo editing.
McDonald’s History
McDonald’s is the world’s largest fast-food chain, with over 40,000 outlets serving nearly 70 million customers in over 100 countries. In 2023, the company’s revenue stood at $25.49 Billion.
The first McDonald’s was opened in 1940 by siblings Richard and Maurice McDonald in San Bernardino, California. However, the golden arches logo the company is known for did not appear in its present form until 1968. In 1961, Ray Kroc purchased equity in the company and began its worldwide expansion.
Another Recent Loss For McDonald’s
Less than a fortnight ago, McDonald’s suffered another loss after the EU’s highest court ruled that the company no longer had exclusive rights to use the label “Big Mac”.
After a legal challenge from an Irish rival chain, Supermac’s, the European Court of Justice said McDonald’s could not show it had made continuous use of the trademark for the last five years. “McDonald’s loses the EU trademark ‘Big Mac’ in respect of poultry products,” ruled the judges.
Another IT Headache
Failures in AI software don’t represent the only technological issue McDonald’s has faced this year. In March, an IT outage left some customers in Japan, New Zealand, Australia and the UK unable to order items from the fast food chain.
McDonald’s later said that the IT issue was not due to a cyber attack, and was quickly identified and resolved. However, the issue was yet another PR headache for a company that’s suffered a rocky first half of 2024.
