Meat McFlurry and chicken McNuggets priced at AED 815? Such was the result after McDonald’s catastrophic trial run of an AI Drive Thru across more than 100 locations, leaving customers infuriated.
The criticisms included the addition of nine sweet teas to one customer’s order, while another customer received an ice cream cone topped with meat/packets of cream. McDonald’s and IBM had joined forces on the program two years ago at select franchises, but as of last week, the fast food powerhouse announced that it will end this trial run come July 26.
“While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” mentioned Mason Smoot, chief restaurant officer for McDonald’s USA.
“After a thoughtful review, McDonald’s has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT and the technology will be shut off in all restaurants currently testing it no later than July 26, 2024.” Smoot did add however that McDonald’s will not cease AI opportunities entirely, and will continue to make “an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.”
McDonald’s informed Restaurant Business that the intention of the pilot program was to gauge whether the new technology would simplify the drive-thru ordering process.
But a certain TikTok user, Cailyn Sykora, posted a video of her ordering from the AI Drive-Thru window, which gave her more than 20 orders of a Chicken McNuggets meal worth AED 815.
But McDonald’s isn’t the first to implement AI strategies into their ordering systems, as Domino’s pizza and Starbucks have both utilised AI voice recognition in the past. But what is perhaps the wildest use of the software is KFC’s implementation of AI in China, where KFC scans customer’s faces in order to predict repeat orders.