A Wendy’s customer posted a viral video of the new “AI worker” who took her order in the drive thru. Viewers are divided on whether they think AI is an improvement to fast food or not.
Brittany (@brittanyann_22) has reached over 467,000 likes and views on her video by Monday. She has an on-screen caption on her video that says, “AI taking over.”
At the start of her video, Brittany records the drive thru ordering menu as she drives up and waits for her order to be taken.
The first thing heard is a voice that asks, “Welcome to Wendy’s, what would you like?” The Wendy’s ordering screen shows a microphone symbol and has closed-captions to what the AI voice is asking the customer. The captions are available in both English and Spanish.
“Can I have a chocolate Frosty?” Brittany asks. As you order from the AI worker, the screen also displays captions of what the customer asks for.
After a pause, the AI worker then responds, “Which size for the chocolate frosty?”
Options for a small, medium, or large frosty are displayed by symbols on the screen below the captions.
“Medium,” Brittany responds.
Next the AI worker asks, “Can I get you anything else today?”
“No, thank you,” she responds.
After an almost 7-second pause, the AI worker says, “Great, please pull up to the next window.”
As the ordering screen refreshes, at the very bottom there is a caption that reads, “VOICE AI ORDERING SESSION HAS ENDED. If you need to make a change or have questions please let a crew member know at the window.”
At the very end of the screen there’s another tab that reads, “FreshAi, A Wendy’s Platform.”
Brittany captioned her video, “Nah fam. I’m not for this. I had to get back into line so I could record this.”
@brittanyann_22 Nah fam. I’m not for this. I had to get back into line so I could record this. #ai #artificialintelligence #wendys ♬ original sound – Brittany
Viewers in the comment section have split opinions on how they feel with AI developing into fast food chains. The most liked comment under Brittany’s video with over 104,000 likes says, “At least it’s polite and friendly. I’ll take it!”
However a few other comments criticize the AI worker’s abilities. “Nah it’s going to slow for me,” one says.
“When I took orders in fast food. I could’ve had this order completed in less than 10 seconds while still being polite,” another admits.
One viewer points out, “Dammm that AI took someone’s job at Wendy’s.”
Is Wendy’s replacing drive-thru workers with AI?
Wendy’s says, “We created Wendy‘s FreshAI to overcome the challenges traditional AI could not solve in the drive-thru, including understanding casual conversation with customers and handling Wendy’s menu full of customizations and configurations.”
According to Restaurant Drive, this pilot program is actually a partnership with Google‘s chatbot technology. It began in May 2023 with four Wendy’s locations, with plans to let franchise owners test it nationwide in 2024.
The Daily Dot reached out to Brittany via TikTok DM and Wendy’s via email.