ALBAWABA - In an escalation of the annoyance of talking to an AI support chat bot, McDonalds is taking it to the next level with AI in drive-thrus.
In a strategy called McDonalds NEXT, you’ll be giving your drive-thru orders to robots. The system called ArchIQ is being tested right now in five locations across the US, according to Restaurant Business Magazine. Apparently this comes as an attempt by McDonalds to “win back customers.”
CEO Statement
“Customers shouldn’t choose between hospitality or speed,” McDonalds CEO Chris Kempczinski said, who was trending a while ago for barely eating a bite of one of his own burgers in disgust;
The company behind the project
@McFranchisee, an X account for a McDonalds Franchise stated in a X post that Google is affiliated with the project, "Archy will not only assist drive-thru orders but act as a master brain to help managers run a better restaurant," it added. "It’s like a personal assistant that alerts you to potential bottlenecks or issues."
Customer feedback
Most of the comments under the X post were negative with statements like: “We all hate the system installed at Wendy's,” and another: “We hate the kiosks at McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell that we are asked to use instead of talking to a person. We will hate this too. Say goodbye to customers.”
“No one wants this - we like dealing with smiling faces," another said, to which @McFranchisee replied, "We still smile at the cash and present window - this is just at the speaker."
