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by dnemmers 39 days ago
Have you not been to a drive through lately? Plenty of ‘computer’ help with the ordering experience.

I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.

2 comments

The strangest thing is happening at my drive through, the voice sounds to be of an older woman and when I get to the window, there aren't any woman working in the restaurant.

There are many non native worker in this restaurant with a distinctive accent but this "old woman" has a local accent.

It's not an ai voice so my guess is that she's somewhere else (at home?) and only handling the drive trough requests.

So the obvious conclusion is --- an old woman operating from a remote location is more effective than AI.
I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.

You're validating my point.

I went through a drive through today. No AI in sight.

If AI is ready, willing and capable of doing the job, why isn't it?

It's not for lack of desire or effort.

https://wonderfulengineering.com/taco-bell-is-rethinking-its...

https://t2conline.com/ai-at-the-drive-through-would-you-like...

Companies are trying. The Wendy's by me has an "AI" ordering process in the drive through. Consequently, I don't go to Wendy's any more because I hate talking to the clanker. But I imagine a lot of people just do it.
Companies are trying.

The rest of your comment suggests tney have yet to fully succeed.

McDonalds tried for 3 years. They found that roughly one in five orders required human intervention. AI created bigger problems than it solved --- like driving away customers.

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mcdonalds-spent-3-years-ai-dr...

Now at first brush, while I don't think that AI could replace fast food workers, McDonald's obviously also went Hard Mode when they partnered with IBM to provide the AI.