Taco Bell has decided to scale back its AI-powered drive-thru ordering initiative after a wave of system glitches and public trolling undermined its effectiveness. I mean, what’s an AI to do when the first thing the customer orders is, “Human, please?”
After expanding its AI voice-ordering system to over 500 drive-thru locations, Taco Bell aimed to streamline ordering and improve customer experience. However, public interactions with the system exposed various vulnerabilities. Some customers deliberately tried to disrupt the AI’s operation, including orders for impossible quantities—like 18,000 cups of water or “666 packets of every sauce available.”
Dane Matthews, Taco Bell’s chief digital and technology officer, acknowledged that while the AI sometimes lives up to its promise, it “lets me down” at other times. As a result, Taco Bell now instructs staff to monitor the system and intervene as needed, rather than relying exclusively on AI for order-taking.
Taco Bell is hardly alone in wrestling with AI-driven ordering. McDonald’s experimented with IBM and is now collaborating with Google Cloud to refine its own solution, while Wendy’s is similarly partnered with Google on its “FreshAI” platform. Other chains, like Wienerschnitzel, have also introduced AI ordering at selected locations.
