Chick-fil-A keeps humans at drive-thru as McDonald's tests AI

The fast food industry has spent decades trying to speed up ordering through digital menus, mobile apps, and self-service kiosks. Now AI wants a turn at the drive-thru speaker, but Chick-fil-A's stance shows not every chain sees that as progress. The chicken chain's drive-thrus often have employees standing outside with tablets, taking orders and directing cars through lines that can stretch around the building — a human touch that Cornell professor Alex Susskind says makes the wait more tolerable.

McDonald's has taken a different path, but its history with the technology is mixed. The company ended an earlier drive-thru voice-ordering test with IBM in 2024 after rolling it out to more than 100 U.S. restaurants, a trial that drew attention for viral videos of botched orders. Its new Archy system claims over 90% accuracy, though Susskind's own experience with an AI phone assistant that turned one pizza into two illustrates how quickly automated ordering can go wrong.

The pricing lawsuit puts a separate spotlight on algorithm use. McDonald's denies the allegations and says franchisees independently set their prices and may choose whether to use the company's pricing recommendations. Antitrust attorney David Scupp said having a human make the final pricing decision and the ability to reject recommendations makes it less of an antitrust problem, though the underlying data and how the system operates also matter. The allegations have not been established in court, and McDonald's pricing-recommendation system is separate from its AI drive-thru technology.