While there are still rumors that AI will take over human jobs, many people are convinced that AI is not that efficient. This is evidenced by the signs of malfunction and incompetence in many AI technology applications. One of these is the AI voice recognition used in fast food drive-thrus. As reported by industry publication Restaurant Business, McDonald's recently announced that it will remove Automated Order Taking (AOT) in its drive-thrus after two years of testing. In an email sent to franchisees, McDonald's mentioned plans to end its previous partnership with IBM and seek a new partner for AOT.
According to media channels, many other fast food chains, such as Wendy's, Dunkin', Tao Jong's, and Hardee's, have also adopted this AI-based voice recognition software to take customer orders at the drive-thru. However, some customers have only found it an object of ridicule. According to the BBC, initially, the technology threatened people's jobs, but over time, it has become quite controversial for its inefficiency. There have been several videos circulating of McDonald's AOTs mistaking customer orders, adding items to orders, and adding inaccurate items to bills.
McDonald's may have used the technology to “exploring voice ordering solutions more broadly,” but its awkwardness became a hit on the Internet. When u/RobbinThickeness shared the BBC article on Reddit, people had a lot to say about AI not being able to replace workers. “After all, fast food workers who create billions of dollars of value can't be automated in Silicon Valley,” the user said in the title. With over 9,400 upvotes, the post gained traction on the platform, with hundreds of users expressing their views on AI replacing fast food workers, or workers in general.
“'Unskilled labor', 'Anyone can do it', 'Not for minimum wage' – I could go on and on. That being said, why are you surprised that a billion dollar industry doesn't bother to properly test their software before implementing it? Ah, right, because they don't care about professionalism or customer satisfaction,” said u/HermitJem. “I can't believe how completely backwards AI deployment is. They keep trying to get AI to replace service workers, which is totally failing. Meanwhile, one of the first real uses of AI in China was to replace a CEO, because they found that AI can make metrics-driven decisions well,” u/splitinfinitive22222 quipped.
“We'll see this on and off for the next decade. Useless executives get convinced by liars that AI can do anything, so they soft launch it. They rush into a full implementation, only for customers to suddenly run away because AI is underdeveloped and can't do any of the things they were sold. The people who made the decisions, who already got their huge bonuses, run away with their money, then make a big announcement that they're hiring again,” said u/BeMancini. “People think AI is magical and CEOs think it will replace workers. In its current form, AI is not as good as humans, but it does many mundane tasks much faster. It's nowhere near advanced enough to eliminate all workers in certain fields, like fast food workers,” added u/flavius_lacivious.
