- Restaurant chain was trialling AI voice ordering system in 100 restaurants in the US
- Several customers have posted videos on social media of order mix-ups
- McDonald’s is not abandoning the idea of AI solutions entirely
Restaurant chain McDonald’s has ended its trial of an artificial intelligence (AI) ordering system following several videos of mistaken orders going viral on social media.
Viral mistakes
McDonald’s had been trialling AI to process orders at drive-thrus in 100 sites across the US. The system, developed by IBM, used voice recognition software to process orders.
But recently several videos have gone viral on platforms such as TikTok showing their frustrations with the technology and some spectacular errors in orders.
One TikTok video, viewed more than 360,000 times, saw a customer try to tell the system it has her order confused with another person’s, but she ends up with nine teas added to her bill.
Other viral videos include two people laughing as hundreds of dollars’ worth of chicken nuggets is added to their order, and a woman becoming increasingly exasperated with the technology as she tries to order caramel ice cream, only to have stacks of butter added instead. Another well-publicised mistake saw an order of ice cream topped with bacon.
Not the end of AI
Now McDonald’s has decided to end the trial and has told its franchisees to remove the technology before July 24. In a statement, the company said that “after a thoughtful review, McDonald’s has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT (automated order taking) and the technology will be shut off in all restaurants.”
But this doesn’t mean that McDonald’s is abandoning AI entirely. The company added that it remained confident the technology would be part of its future and that it continues to evaluate long-term solutions and will decide on future voice ordering solutions by the end of 2024.
