--- title: Is AI the future of drive-thrus? - The Hustle description: McDonald’s sold its AI tech to IBM to scale voice ordering at drive-thrus. image: https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/826255914-News-Brief_2021-11-02T004841.697Z.webp --- # Is AI the future of drive-thrus? ![Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Juliet Bennett Rylah](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/juliet-bennett-rylah) [Juliet Bennett Rylah Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/JBRylah) Published: November 02, 2021 Updated: October 11, 2023 In the near future, you could order your Big Mac from a bot. Or maybe you already have… ![Is AI the future of drive-thrus?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hs-fs/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/826255914-News-Brief_2021-11-02T004841.697Z.webp?width=595&height=400&name=826255914-News-Brief_2021-11-02T004841.697Z.webp) Restaurants have been [experimenting](https://thehustle.co/05172021-kitchen-robots/) more and more with AI and robots, especially as companies struggle to find entry-level workers. #### **McDonald’s has been working on tech-savvy drive-thrus for a while** In 2019, it [acquired](https://techcrunch.com/2019/09/10/mcdonalds-acquires-apprente/) the startup Apprente, which specializes in voice ordering, and created McD Tech Labs. In June, it [tested](https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/02/mcdonalds-tests-automated-drive-thru-ordering-at-10-chicago-restaurants.html) the tech in 10 Chicago drive-thrus, allowing customers to [tell a computer](https://www.tiktok.com/@soupmaster2000/video/6857656601080368389) their order. The bots were ~85% accurate. At that time, CEO Chris Kempczinski told *CNBC* that McDonald’s acquisition strategy was to bring companies in house for a short period, then find a partner to scale it. #### **And that’s exactly what McDonald’s did** Last week, McDonald’s [announced](https://corporate.mcdonalds.com/corpmcd/en-us/our-stories/article/ourstories.IBM-McD-Tech-Labs.html) the sale of its Automated Order Taking (AOT) tech to IBM, which will also acquire McD Tech Labs. IBM already has Watson, its own [suite of AI tools](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/what-is-ibm-watson-and-its-services/) (not to be confused with its [supercomputer](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/technology/what-happened-ibm-watson.html) of the same name that, in 2011, beat Ken Jennings at “Jeopardy”). McDonalds has a long way to go before it can roll out AI to all 14k of its US restaurants. But as it stands, 20% of orders in McD’s 6 top markets are already made digitally through apps, kiosks, or for delivery, accounting for **$13B** in sales, [per](https://www.restaurantdive.com/news/mcdonalds-will-sell-mcd-tech-labs-to-ibm/608978/) *Restaurant Dive*. **Check this out:** Amid the pandemic, a Moscow KFC was almost [entirely run by bots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB2NwTN5l3M), reducing employee-customer contact. In 2017, for National Fried Chicken Day, KFC built a [robot](https://www.qsrmagazine.com/news/robot-colonel-sanders-comes-kfc-fried-chicken-day) Colonel Sanders. 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