Would you like AIs with that? Chatbots are coming to drive-thrus

A US fast food chain has begun rolling out AI-enabled voices in some of its drive-thrus, with plans to be in 100 locations by 2024.

White Castle — famous for its sliders, and Harold and Kumar — has partnered with a speech recognition company called SoundHound to bring AI to its drive-thrus.

SoundHound already boasts a suite of high-profile customers for its technology, including Netflix, Qualcomm, and Snap. It can also be found in a range of car brands such as Mercedes-Benz, Kia, and Hyundai.

The AI-powered drive-thrus will let customers know on-screen that they will be interacting with a voice assistant. It will also display possible phrases for customers to use on the AI, such as asking for more time to order.

From there, the orders get sent to the kitchen and they are given to the customer as with any other drive-thru order.

It has been confirmed that customers will also have the option to speak to a human if there are issues with the orders.

While White Castle is a chain that sits firmly within the US, this move is certainly indicative of what’s to come for the greater fast-food landscape.

Wendy’s has also confirmed that it is rolling out its own AI drive-thru assistants with the help of Google. And this hits a little closer to home, with the burger company announcing plans to expand into Australia in 2022. It is also the third-largest fast food chain in the US after McDonald’s and Burger King (Hungry Jack’s) — both of which have been successful in Australia.

In the case of Wendy’s, Google has built a bespoke chatbot on top of its large language model (LLM). This enables it to be trained to understand specific company names and slang. For example, it needs to understand that a ‘milkshake’ is a ‘frosty’ in the world of Wendy’s, and that someone saying “JBC” means they want a junior bacon cheeseburger.

Drive-thru chatbots could influence small businesses in Australia

These may be big brand names, but their technological innovations do have an impact on small businesses.

In Australia 85% of 1000 McDonald’s restaurants operating are franchises. This means that when this technology rolls out here — and it will — these will be small to medium businesses utilising them.

This may invoke fears around job loss or losing a human connection in the service industry — but according to White Castle, it won’t be cutting any jobs due to bringing AI assistants in.

And not everyone minds talking to a robot. According to the Wall Street Journal, there have been mixed responses to the AI-enabled drive-thrus so far. While some customers have been frustrated by the experience, others have enjoyed not having to interact with disgruntled employees.

And recent statistics have shown that 20% of consumers preferred talking to a chatbot in 2022, which was up from 13% in 2021. A large quantity of this group was made up of gen Z and millennials at 32%.

Still, like with all AI, it is going to be a little while before you see it become the norm at your local Maccas. But it is coming.