Fast-food chains are pushing AI deeper into the restaurant stack even as customers continue to prefer human order-takers at the drive-thru speaker. Wendy's FreshAI, built with Google, now handles 86% of orders correctly without any employee intervention. A January 2025 YouGov survey found 55% of Americans still prefer a human at the drive-thru, 21% have no preference, and just 4% would choose an AI chatbot.
The split between operator enthusiasm and customer reluctance is shaping where the technology goes next. Chains are quietly moving AI off the microphone and into back-of-house systems, headsets, scales, and menu boards, where the upside is measurable and the customer-facing friction is lower. A National Restaurant Association survey found 26% of restaurant operators now use AI in some form, most often for marketing and administrative work rather than order-taking.
McDonald's kicked off the drive-thru experiment in 2021 at 10 Chicago locations, building on its 2019 acquisition of voice-tech startup Apprente and a later partnership with IBM. That IBM partnership ended in 2024 after mixed results. McDonald's is now giving AI drive-thrus a second look while also deploying AI to predict equipment failures, including its famously unreliable ice cream machines, and AI-powered scales that flag missing items by comparing target weight to actual bag weight.
Key facts
- 01Wendy's FreshAI, built with Google, handles 86% of drive-thru orders without employee intervention.
- 02A January 2025 YouGov survey found 55% of Americans prefer a human at the drive-thru; just 4% prefer an AI chatbot.
- 03Taco Bell customers trolled its Voice AI by ordering 18,000 water cups in a single stunt.
- 04Berry AI claims its camera-timer system shortens drive-thru service time by 20% to 40%.
- 0526% of US restaurant operators now use AI, mostly for marketing and admin work, per the National Restaurant Association.
Checkers and Rally's rolled out chatbots from Presto across all corporate-owned drive-thrus in 2022. Wendy's launched FreshAI in Columbus, Ohio in 2023, with the model trained on franchise-specific vocabulary so it knows a Frosty is a milkshake and a JBC is a junior bacon cheeseburger. Taco Bell ran a parallel Voice AI pilot and announced plans to expand to hundreds of US locations by the end of 2024.
“Wendy's FreshAI takes drive-thru orders correctly 86% of the time without employee intervention, yet a January 2025 YouGov survey found only 4% of Americans prefer ordering from an AI chatbot.”— Jaeden Schafer
Then customers found the edges. Taco Bell's chief digital officer Dane Mathews said the company is reevaluating its deployment after frustrated customers trolled the system by ordering 18,000 water cups in one incident, with others speaking in different languages or making absurd orders to force a human handoff. Panera Bread, White Castle, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, Panda Express, and Popeyes have all tested similar systems with varying results.
Presto, which powers drive-thru AI at Checkers, Rally's, Carl's Jr., Hardee's, and Dairy Queen, was charged by the Securities and Exchange Commission last year with misleading customers about its technology's capabilities. A 2023 SEC filing showed human workers in the Philippines were stepping in to handle most orders the AI system was supposedly taking autonomously. Presto had pitched the tech as a way to "free up staff for more people-dependent areas of their business."
The next wave is less visible. Burger King announced in February that it is piloting Patty, an AI assistant that lives inside employee headsets and coaches workers on food prep, such as how many bacon strips go on a Texas Double Whopper. Patty also listens for friendliness cues, tracking whether employees say "welcome to Burger King," "please," and "thank you." Burger King is also using AI to alert managers when equipment goes down and to automatically remove out-of-stock items from digital menu boards.
Taco Bell is testing an AI-driven menu board that goes further. Ranjith Roy, CFO of Taco Bell parent Yum!, told analysts on the company's most recent earnings call that the system can "dynamically change the layout, content, and visuals on a car-by-car basis." The implication is per-customer personalization at the menu level, similar to what Applebee's and IHOP are exploring for upsell suggestions.
Drive-thru analytics are also picking up traction. Culver's and Zaxbys are working with Berry AI on camera-timer systems that capture data on traffic flow and service execution. Berry AI claims its technology shortens drive-thru service time by 20% to 40%, a measurable operational gain that does not require customers to interact with a chatbot at all.
The credibility problem still looms over the chatbot category. The Presto SEC action established that at least one major vendor was overstating autonomy, and customer trolling on social media has given chains a real reputational reason to slow-roll the technology. Wendy's 86% pass rate sounds strong until the comparison is the human baseline, where customers also expect graceful handling of exceptions like the out-of-stock sandwich.
The economics of fast-food AI are shifting from a single dramatic deployment, replacing the drive-thru speaker, to a portfolio of smaller wins, equipment monitoring, inventory automation, weight checks, employee coaching, and dynamic menus. Each of those individually moves margin by a fraction of a point, and together they justify the AI budget without forcing customers into a conversation they have repeatedly said they do not want. The chatbot at the speaker will keep improving, but the bigger near-term return for chains like McDonald's and Yum! looks like the AI the customer never sees.
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