Automated Drive-Thru — Banks, Restaurants, Fast-Foods, Grocery Stores (2024)

If you drove through a drive-thru in the 1970’s and again in 2023, the only difference you’d notice is the type of cars in line. Drive-thru technology has been serving us well for over 50 years, but now it’s time to modernize it.

With AI and automation, drive-thrus can become a thing of the future. AI has the ability to create a faster, more customer-centric experience by reducing wait times, menu personalization, and much more.

Welcome to the drive-thru, AI will now take your order.

Why We Need to Modernize the Drive-Thru

In 2019, driving thru was an act of convenience. In 2020, it became an act of safety. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, customer demand for drive-thrus soared. With minimal interaction and touchpoints, drive-thrus became one of the safest ways for customers to get food from restaurants. During this time, most major companies and restaurants began rethinking their drive-thru experience and increasing their spend.

Demand for drive-thrus remains strong even today. Brands are putting their dollars where their customers are and upgrading their drive-thrus to become more efficient, cost-effective, and exciting.

A survey by Bluedot, which provides geofencing technology to restaurant brands, found that drive-thru visits were up 36 percent from the early days of the pandemic. This increase doesn’t hold for other pandemic developments such as curbside pick-up or in-store pick-up, both of which saw declines in 2021.

While more customers are using drive-thrus, they still want a good experience. The survey found that 85% of customers will leave if the line is too long. They also want order accuracy, and 68% said they would revisit a drive-thru if their order was correct.

With customers continuing to flock to drive-thru windows and demand better, faster service, it’s no wonder companies are investing in new technology to make the drive-thru a better experience.

AI and Automatic Speech Recognition in the Drive-Thru

One of the critical components to successfully implementing AI technology in the drive-thru is automatic speech recognition. If the AI can’t understand the person ordering, it must bring in a human to assist, which can potentially result in a lost order when the customer gets frustrated.

Good news is that AI speech recognition algorithms have millions of data points to use for training data. AI models can learn on the job, using the millions of orders a day that drive-thru windows at large companies get to improve the model and make it smarter.

Benefits of AI in the Drive-Thru

There are a number of different technology companies that are pairing with restaurant brands to implement AI technology in the drive-thru. These partnerships have created the following benefits:

  • Consistent customer service experience for all
  • Reduce labor costs
  • Reduced time customers spend in line
  • Personalized menus
  • Increased upselling
  • Operating in multiple languages

While much of the focus of AI technology is on fast food restaurant drive-thrus, this technology will have cascading effects on other industries. Automating drive-thrus could benefit fast casual restaurants, grocery stores, and banks as well.

Automated Drive-Thru — Banks, Restaurants, Fast-Foods, Grocery Stores (1)

Consistent Customer Experience

One of the most important benefits that AI technology can have on the drive-thru is providing a consistent customer experience. The success of large chains is all about replication. When you drive through a bank or fast-food restaurant in Iowa, you expect the same experience that you’d get if you’re at a drive-thru in California.

When customers order via AI speech recognition technology, they will receive the same, high-quality customer experience anywhere in the world. With fast food restaurants facing labor shortages and quick turnover with employees, training them to provide a consistent customer experience is a challenge. AI technology can provide that consistent experience.

Reduced Labor Costs

The implementation of AI technology and drive-thru automation can reduce labor costs for companies with drive-thrus. If the AI handles customer transactions and takes payments in the drive-thru, human employees can focus on other, more important tasks. The business becomes more efficient and needs fewer employees to operate, thus saving money.

Increase Upselling

AI technology can also be programmed to upsell to drive-thru customers. Currently, estimates find that human employees upsell to customers only 40 percent of the time. If an AI algorithm was trained to upsell, it could do so 100 percent of the time, which would increase ticket value and increase restaurant revenue.

Create More Regional or Personalized Menus

As AI technology learns what customers like to order at specific fast food restaurant drive-thrus, it can better customize the menu. This can be done in increasingly personalized ways. A menu could be customized to the region, the person, the time of day, the weather, what has already been ordered, or any other granular specification.

Increase Drive-Thru Speed

One of the most important benefits that AI technology can provide to drive-thrus is by increasing speed. Whether a customer is completing a transaction at their bank or ordering food in a drive-thru, they want to get out of there as quickly as possible. Customers expect the drive-thru to be fast. They want to order their food, get it, and get back to their day.

One AI company that implemented AI automatic speech recognition technology at a drive-thru found that it decreased wait times by seven seconds. While this might seem small, even small efficiencies add up over time.

Process Orders in Different Languages

Depending where in the world you are, there can be more than one common spoken language and for drive-thrus, you’ll never know what language that is until the customer starts ordering. With AI speech recognition, orders can be placed in multiple languages. Allowing customers to order in their preferred language and help ensure they are ordering exactly what they want.

Take Multiple Orders at the Same Time

Where AI speech recognition technology will really be able to increase speed and efficiency in the drive-thru is that it can take multiple orders at the same time. By taking multiple orders at the same time, the AI will reduce wait time for customers in line at the drive-thru. Less wait time makes for happier customers.

AI Drive-Thru Challenges

When it comes to implementing AI technology for drive-thrus, there are a number of challenges that must be addressed, such as:

  • Accurate speech recognition
  • Identifying speech in a difficult, noisy sound environment
  • Recognizing different accents and languages

Finding solutions to all of these problems is key to developing the drive-thrus of the future using AI technology.

The Future of AI and Drive-Thrus

More recently the excitement around advancements in drive-thru ordering using smart-voice technology, has began to soar. The use of automation in drive-thru lines has been on the rise, and companies like Presto have been leading the way for over 15 years, processing over 300 million transactions.

In a recent survey, from The Food Institute found that consumers aged 18 to 44 years old were 68% more likely to visit a drive-thru if it offers a celebrity voice. This shows that smart-voice technology can not only improve efficiency but also enhance the customer experience.

We believe that by incorporating AI technology in drive-thru ordering can provide a personalized touch, improve speed, and increase customer satisfaction.

To successfully implement AI technology at drive-thrus and create a drive-thru experience that will make customers happy, companies will need high-quality data and smart algorithm training. Without the right data and training, the AI algorithms won’t be able to create the high-quality customer experience that today’s modern customer demands in every interaction.

Automated Drive-Thru — Banks, Restaurants, Fast-Foods, Grocery Stores (2024)

FAQs

Is McDonald's using AI drive-thru? ›

McDonald's has announced that it is discontinuing its AI drive-thru ordering experiment. Having struck a partnership with IBM in 2021, the fast-food behemoth has since deployed automated voice bots to take orders at more than 100 of its American restaurants in a bid to boost efficiency.

Which fast food chain has the fastest drive-thru service? ›

Fastest Food: 10 Classic Chain Restaurants, Ranked by Drive-Thru Speed
  • Taco Bell: 278.84 seconds.
  • Carl's Jr.: 303.74 seconds.
  • KFC: 303.95 seconds.
  • Arby's: 319.64 seconds.
  • Dunkin': 321.10 seconds.
  • Hardee's: 336.15 seconds.
  • Wendy's: 343.07 seconds.
  • Burger King: 351.38 seconds.
Oct 19, 2023

What fast food restaurant invented drive-thru? ›

In-N-Out Burger, Established in 1948, Baldwin Park

Started in 1948 by Harry Snyder, In-N-Out is credited with the invention of the two-way speaker system, enabling the very first drive-thru.

Which fast food restaurants are using artificial intelligence? ›

Fast-food chains have taken an immense interest in integrating generative AI into their systems in recent years. Along with McDonald's, a range of other companies including Wendy's, Hardee's, Carl's Jr, and Del Taco all use AI technology at their drive-thrus.

Which food companies are using AI? ›

Yum! Brands, owner of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, has invested heavily in AI through its acquisition of Kvantum and Tictuk Technologies, enhancing its digital ordering capabilities. ​​​​​​​These AI order-takers listen and learn to personalise service and streamlining operations.

Is Wendy's using AI? ›

Unlike traditional rule-based systems, Wendy's FreshAI uses generative AI to generate responses and adapt in real-time instead of just following a narrow set of rules.

Does Starbucks use AI? ›

Starbucks Uses AI-Powered Personalized Rewards to Boost Frequency and Spend. Starbucks is seeing its artificial intelligence data efforts boost its rewards program effectiveness, incentivizing consumers to spend more and visit more often.

What is the #1 fast-food chain in America? ›

McDonald's position as the top restaurant chain in the United States has been consistent since Technomic started their annual report.

What is the most rich fast-food chain? ›

McDonald's was the most valuable fast food brand in the world with an estimated brand value of about 191 billion U.S. dollars in 2023. That same year, the brand value of Starbucks amounted to approximately 61.5 billion U.S. dollars. How many McDonald's restaurants are there worldwide?

Which fast-food chain is the slowest? ›

While fast food customers sure love Chick-fil-A, its drive-thru is the slowest out there. That's according to the 2023 Quick-Service Restaurant Drive-Thru study, which stated that Chick-fil-A may be the slowest of the ten major U.S. chains only because it's so popular and there are so many cars in line.

Why can't drive thrus serve walk ups? ›

Since drive-thrus are designed for vehicles and not pedestrians, there are always safety and insurance risks of serving foot traffic, even if the law doesn't forbid it.

What was the McDonald's signature sandwich called before Big Mac? ›

Eat'n Park was the Pittsburgh area's Big Boy franchisee at the time. The Big Mac proved popular and it was added to the menu of all U.S. McDonald's restaurants in 1968. The Big Mac had two previous names, both of which failed in the marketplace: the Aristocrat and the Blue Ribbon Burger.

What is the oldest fast food franchise? ›

Arguably, fast-food restaurants originated in the United States with White Castle in 1921.

How many robotic McDonald's are there? ›

McDonald's opened the first mostly robot-run fast food restaurant in December 2022 in Fort Worth, Texas. At this McDonald's there are no human cashiers, and everything is run by automation and robots.

Where is the where in California is the automated restaurant called Pop It? ›

CaliExpress by Flippy bills itself as the world's first fully autonomous restaurant. The fast-food restaurant, operated by Miso Robotics in Pasadena, California, is an hour's drive from my home, so I set out after the July 4 holiday to check out the pop-up eatery.

What is the world's first fully AI-powered restaurant? ›

The world's first-ever fully autonomous, AI-powered restaurant, CaliExpress, has landed in Southern California as a burger-flipping phenomenon. The group behind the dystopian project, Cali Group, set up shop on the northwest corner of Green Street and Madison Avenue at 561 E. Green St.

What company makes fast-food robots? ›

AI & Robotic Automation for Restaurants | Maker of Flippy | Miso Robotics.

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