Next time you want a chalupa supreme, you might not order from a person. Taco Bell is expanding software to use its artificial intelligence voice recognition. After testing the technology at more than 100 locations in 13 states, the fast food chain’s parent company aims to add voice-activated AI capabilities to hundreds more Taco Bell drive-thrus across the U.S. by the end of the year.
“With more than two years of fine-tuning and testing of drive-thru AI technology, we are confident in its effectiveness in optimizing operations and increasing customer satisfaction,” said Lawrence Kim, chief innovation officer of Yum! Brands. The company also owns KFC and is currently testing Voice AI at five locations for that chain in Australia.
It sounds a little silly, but in practice, this is an AI implementation that non-early adopters may encounter in the wild. There are many splashy headlines about it chatbots that sound like celebrities, but this type of practical use case shows where and how voice AI can appear in human work and the workplace. The press release centers on employee experience as one of the reasons to pursue technology. “Tapping into artificial intelligence allows us to ease the workload of our team members, freeing them up to focus on front-of-house hospitality. It also enables us to unlock new and meaningful ways to connect with our customers,” said Taco Bell Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Matthews.
Here’s the upside. The downside is that the technology still has many unsolved flaws. McDonald’s made a similar effort to discover an AI-equipped driver, but stopped the program earlier this summer. Clients held meetings of equal parts edgy and funny with AI order options in testing phase. There is also the concern that if the flaws in these AI systems are addressed, easing the workloads of team members could translate into job losses for some team members.
