Recently, AI has been used a lot in everyday life. This is because AI can replace humans. With the advancement of AI, the ability to replace humans has also functioned. AI has the advantage of reducing labor costs by replacing what many people do, but is there any disadvantage of AI?
McDonald’s, which is synonymous with fast food in the U.S., has decided to discontinue its drive-through artificial intelligence (AI) ordering service, which was ambitiously introduced in partnership with IBM. This is due to frequent errors in ordering, and eventually, more and more employees have to intervene.
Restaurant Business, a media outlet specializing in the food industry, and others reported on the 17th that “the AI order service, which was introduced to more than 100 McDonald’s drive-through stores in October 2021, will end on the 26th of next month.”
McDonald’s introduction of AI service drew much attention at the time. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski expressed confidence in the company’s success, saying that the company would intervene in just one case out of every five orders. At the time, other fast-food companies, including Wendy’s, followed suit, saying that AI would save labor costs and actively recommend “expensive menus” to customers, thereby increasing sales.
However, the results were far below par. Employees were far more likely to come forward due to errors in AI chatbots. External noise seems to have affected this as well, as the drive-through nature of ordering in a car. In fact, the video platform TikTok has shared an order for “water and vanilla ice cream,” with butter and coffee cream added. When the AI chatbot urged people to complete the order, a video of customers shouting, “Wait. We’re humans” also made headlines. Another popular video showed a laughable situation in which hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets were added to the order, and the New York Post reported that another person had bacon added to the ice cream by mistake.
McDonald’s is soon introducing Google’s work-support chatbot ‘Ask Pickle’ to find another way to use AI, said The Verge, an information and communication technology (IT) media outlet.
However, McDonald’s will not completely stop introducing AI. In partnership with Google, McDonald’s plans to introduce an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that assists employees in their business at its U.S. stores. The chatbot is called “ask pickles,” which is designed to assist employees in their business, and it will also apply Generative AI programs to ordering kiosks, McDonald’s mobile apps, and drive-thru.
JENNIFER KIM
US ASIA JOURNAL
