this post was submitted on 29 Aug 2025
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After 2 Million AI Orders, Taco Bell Admits Humans Still Belong in the Drive-Thru (www.cnet.com)
submitted 1 month ago by throws_lemy@lemmy.nz to c/tech@programming.dev
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Fast food companies have been experimenting with integrating artificial intelligence into their restaurants, from Flippy the burger-flipping robot at White Castle to dynamic pricing at Wendy's. One arena where AI seems to really be struggling, though, is at the drive-thru -- and Taco Bell is the latest to experience AI mishaps at the order box. After taking 2 million orders with AI, Taco Bell has reached one conclusion: we still need humans.

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[–] Creat@discuss.tchncs.de 9 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

From a corporate viewpoint, that's a one time cost with a very small (likely national) ongoing component. People cost only some training up front, but then have a high ongoing cost (wages and everything that entails). Typically they are all over this.

In my area you can't really order anything in fast food places. You have a screen where you create and pay your order, then a human just assembles it. There are still people involved, but much less than 30 years ago. Clearly they took that trade.