Voice AI expands across US fast-food drive-thrus.

Voice AI is rapidly moving into the fast-food drive-thru lane, transitioning from experimental trials to widespread commercial deployment. According to Intouch Insight’s annual Drive Thru Survey, voice AI adoption at US fast-food locations rose from 4 percent in 2024 to 5 percent last year, with early research indicating it has now reached 6 percent. Major chains are scaling up their rollouts. Taco Bell has deployed AI systems developed by Nvidia and Omilia at 890 drive-thru lanes, representing over 10 percent of its US footprint. Dairy Queen is rolling out Presto-powered systems across 25 states, while White Castle uses a SoundHound AI assistant named Julia at 12 percent of its locations, making it standard for all new openings.

This current wave follows a period of high-profile setbacks. McDonald's initiated the trend by acquiring Apprete in 2019 to form McD Tech Labs, which was later sold to IBM before the chain temporarily halted the technology. Del Taco also ended its partnership with Presto in 2024. Early iterations struggled with accents, leading to viral social media mishaps like an automated system adding 260 Chicken McNuggets or bacon on ice cream to orders. However, the technology has matured. McDonald's is now testing Google-powered AI ordering in English and Spanish at 5 US locations, and investment firm Branded Hospitality has partnered with Arc to bring voice AI to chains like Jack's and Pollo Campero. Panda Express has also utilized SoundHound technology.

For industry practitioners, these systems offer clear operational advantages. Intouch Insight found that AI-driven lanes beat the industry average service speed by 21 seconds. Furthermore, AI agents excel at boosting profit margins through automated upselling, executing suggestive selling 71 percent of the time compared to the human industry average of 58 percent. Despite some customer hesitation and a preference for human connection at chains like Chick-fil-A, Dutch Bros, and 7Brew, Intouch Insight reports a 97 percent customer satisfaction rate for the technology. Operationally, the technology acts as an assistant rather than a replacement, helping human workers multitask and improving employee retention rates without reducing overall staff numbers.