• by Tanya Gazdik , March 23, 2025

The friendly employees seen in many fast-food restaurant commercials are being replaced by artificial technology. 

Even though other QSR chains have tried the new tech out with mixed results, AI will soon be taking your drive-thru orders at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and KFC locations.

“Through a partnership with technology company Nvidia, fast-food giant Yum Brands said it will begin rolling out AI at hundreds of its locations starting in April and continuing through June,” according to USA Today. “That includes using the company's voice-ordering tech, which will handle complex menu orders and navigate customer speech patterns, according to a news release this week.”

Yum Brands announced the partnership last week at Nvidia’s GTC conference, the chipmaker’s annual developer conference.

So what are the advantages of having a computer as the public face of your brand? 

“AI could speed up the time it takes for a person to order food at a drive-through or call center, especially during big events like game days when demand could surge at popular restaurants,”  according to the Los Angeles Times. “On average, the total amount of time a customer spends in a drive-through is 5 minutes and 29 seconds, according to a 2024 drive-through study by Intouch Insights. The study, which involved shoppers placing orders at the drive-throughs of fast food restaurants, found that only 4% of visits involved AI technology, but the total time spent was faster by 29 seconds.”

Other QSR chainss are also experimenting with the technology, including Wendy’s, which announced in February it was deploying voice-enabled AI to take orders at up to 600 restaurants nationwide after executives "really liked" the results of the pilot program, which incorporated the technology at nearly 100 locations.

However, McDonald’s ended a pilot AI program last July after customers reported the tool got orders wrong. In 2021, the QSR giant partnered with IBM to test-run the AI ordering technology at over 100 locations, according to CNBC and Fox Business.

For those who aren’t fans of talking to AI, yelling “representative” over and over again won’t do you any good at the drive-through window. There’s always the restaurants mobile apps, though, which offer a choice of not having to use your voice at all.