Posted on 03/27/2025 7:55:42 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Taco Bell is about to get an AI makeover from one of the biggest names in the game.
Yum! Brands, the owner of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, announced it is teaming up with chip company Nvidia to bring the chip giant’s AI technology to its drive-thrus and restaurant operations — upgrading and expanding Taco Bell’s existing voice AI.
According to Tuesday’s announcement, Nvidia’s AI software will be integrated into Yum’s in-house tech platform, enabling voice assistants to take orders more smoothly, smart cameras to track bottlenecks in real time, and AI analytics to help managers optimize operations.
Yum has already tested the technology at select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations, and plans to expand it to 500 restaurants across its four brands in the second quarter. Indeed, Taco Bell could really use the boost.
According to the 2024 QSR Drive-Thru Report, the chain lags its biggest competitors like Wendy’s and McDonald’s, taking one to two minutes longer to complete orders per car — while ranking worst in order accuracy among the 10 major fast-food chains surveyed.
These rivals aren’t slowing down on AI either: Wendy’s is scaling up its voice AI ordering from 100 to 500 to 600 drive-thru locations by year-end. Meanwhile, McDonald’s is planning to use AI across all 43,000 of its stores after scrapping an earlier drive-thru AI trial that struggled with accuracy.
The AI push comes at a time when restaurant labor productivity is soaring in the US, after staying flat for nearly 30 years. According to a new NBER study, fast-food labor productivity jumped over 15% during the pandemic as more customers chose takeout and delivery, spending less time in-store.
12%+ error rates on drive through orders....who’s running the quality team there....
I’ve recently had the chance to experience one of these new voice assisted drive this. They fulfill their intended purpose, but to me the experience felt impersonal, off putting, and it almost seemed to slow the process of ordering waiting on the ai to respond while you order. I’d rather just park, walk in and order from the kiosk.
Owners who leave teenagers in charge of their store should go broke.
My local Taco Bell has no menu visible on the wall when you order inside. You must use the kiosk to order, which often freezes. There are very few people working, mostly very young that don’t speak English very well. I can’t imagine that location is making much of a profit.
The local In-N-Out burger place is jam packed though, with about twenty people working feverishly to handle the huge crowds. Great customer service too, and everyone speaks English fluently.
It’s not rocket science to have a successful business plan.
“....who’s running the quality team there....”
~~~
That’s the right question.
They are investing in AI because they probably don’t want to invest in wages.
This is anecdotal but I recently sat in a tacobell drive through for over 10 minutes, and when I finally got up to order, the voice said that there was a 30 minute wait for orders inside the restaurant and 30 minute wait for orders in the drive through. So I left.
I wont be any more specific except to say that the person’s voice sounded like a complete buffoon, almost like the speech in idiocracy.
I’m not saying AI can’t work.
But if you don’t want to wait for the R&D and deployment and hope that it improves service, how about if you actually spend some of that money on competent human beings.
My additional request is can it come pre-chewed?
Already tastes like crap so I wont request pre-digested, and the bacteria levels really help my guy biome.
That must be one of the current scams to get customers to go away. I got the 30 minute statement at a KFC just prior to 5 o’clock dinner rush. The other one I get frequently is “cash only” claiming the card reader is down. Or we are only doing online orders. One of the things in common with these is the people running the place are young POC. and there are no other customers.
To me the error rates seem incredibly high for all of them. I would say a target for processes should be to max out at a mere 2% error rate. My gut feeling is that many of these “errors” are caused by customers placing confusing orders, or not ordering what they think they are.
People like my Mother in Law. LOL. I bet she is the cause of a 30% error rate with her confusing, disjointed approach to ordering.
Every time i’ve been to a certain fast food chicken place (not KFC) it’s staffed by POC and they’ve been racist - waiting on POC first, shorting me on chicken pieces etc.
Taco Johns is way better than taco bell.
I already fired them for the Kiosks. Not doing kiosks. Starve first.
Popeye’s strikes again. I have seen some crazy things there.
Toxic Shell ... Making you sicker quicker!
Owners who leave IRRESPONSIBLE teenagers in charge of their store should go broke.
There are some very responsible teens out there. But the owner should be popping in occasionally to make sure. How dumb do you have to be to allow this kind of service to occur in your multi-million dollar franchise?
if obama owned a fried chicken franchise....
They already screw up too much; imagine what they can do with “AI”.
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