, plenty of sweeping changes are underway at McDonald's in 2024. However, guests will soon have to make their peace with another major shift at the Golden Arches that will impact the drive-thru ordering experience.
McDonald's is officially pulling the plug on the artificial intelligence drive-thru test it has been conducting in partnership with IBM,, citing an email to franchisees it had obtained. The AI feature uses a voice bot in lieu of a living, breathing employee to take customers' orders at drive-thrus. It's currently in use at more than 100 McDonald's locations—and the company plans to shut off the technology at all of them late next month.
Smoot added that they're planning to make"an informed decision on a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year," according to the publication.Zoe Strozewski is a News Writer for Eat This, Not That! A Chicago native who now lives in New Jersey, she graduated from Kean University in 2020 with a bachelor’s degree in journalism.