McDonald's US replaces human drive-through workers with Siri-like AI

Next time Americans hit up a McDonald's drive-through, they might find themselves leaning out their window to bark their order to a robot rather than a human. Photo / Getty Images

Fast-food giant McDonald's has replaced human drive-through workers with Siri-like AI technology in a world-first trial in the US.

McDonald's has been testing out a Siri-like voice-recognition system at ten drive-through locations in Chicago, CEO Chris Kempczinski revealed last week.

It means human workers are being replaced from drive-through duties, although some are needed to help the AI with any issues.

The system can handle about 80 per cent of orders that come through and fills them with about 85 per cent accuracy.

While the lack of accuracy might be annoying for some customers, a rollout across the US could happen in the next five years.

One major challenge McDonald's is facing is human workers have been too eager to help the technology that will soon replace them, preventing it from accruing real-world data crucial for improving the system, Kempczinski said.

"We weren't getting enough of the orders to be actually able to be processed through the voice recognition technology," Kempczinski said on the call according to NRN.

"Because as soon as there was a question or a hiccup, the crew had a tendency to just want to jump in. And it took a little bit of time to actually learn to trust the technology."

"We've had to do a little bit of training of 'just keep your hands off the steering wheel, let the computer do its work'."

There are fears many employees will eventually find themselves out of a job should the change to AI drive-throughs become a permanent move.

A McDonald's New Zealand spokesperson told the Herald there are no plans to bring the trial down under so far but that technological advancements are always being made.

"McDonald's is continually trialling new technology and new ways to deliver convenience.

"Successful pilots are often then scaled around the world. In New Zealand we introduced touch screen kiosks in restaurants in 2016, and they have proved popular with customers as they provide more time and flexibility when placing orders.

"The kiosks were introduced at the same time we launched table delivery, and allowed us to redeploy staff from behind the counter into front of house roles."