McDonald'sThe controversial automatic ordering AI system will be temporarily suspended from testing. Customers who often have their orders misplaced by artificial intelligence chatbots can now breathe a sigh of relief. According to the industry publication Restaurant Business, McDonald's has notified its franchisees that it will end its partnership with the company by July 26, 2024. IBM Collaborative automatic voice ordering system testing.
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This cooperation project, which began in 2021, was piloted in more than 100 McDonald's drive-thru restaurants. At present, McDonald's has not announced the specific reason for terminating its cooperation with IBM.
However, McDonald's is still optimistic about the prospects of automatic ordering AI technology. They previously stated thatThis test convinced them that "voice ordering solutions will become part of future restaurants."
Outsiders speculate thatMcDonald's may seek other partners to continue to advance related technology research and developmentLast December, McDonald's announced a partnership with Google, but the details of the partnership were vague. According to Bloomberg, one of the contents of the cooperation is to provide a chatbot called "Ask Pickles" for employees to seek guidance on cleaning ice cream machines and other matters.
It is worth mentioning that Google has cooperated with Wendy's last year to test an automatic ordering AI system based on its technology, and has made progress.
In addition to McDonald's, other fast food chains are also eager to use AI technology. For example, White Castle is testing an AI system provided by voice recognition company SoundHound, while brands such as Carl's Jr. and Hardee's are using AI chatbots that automatically take orders and are remotely controlled by humans (mostly in the Philippines, according to documents disclosed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission).
In fact,Automatic food ordering AI This is just part of McDonald's attempts to automate restaurant operations in recent years. They have also launched mobile ordering, in-store self-service kiosk systems, and have tried new technologies such as drone delivery, kitchen robots, and controversial AI recruitment tools.