Taco Bell to rethink AI usage in drive-through restaurants following glitches

Taco Bell will reconsider the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in its drive-through restaurants after clips of tech glitches have been viewed millions of times on social media.

Taco Bell will reconsider the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to power its drive-through restaurants after videos of the technology making errors have been viewed millions of times on social media.

In one clip, a customer crashed the system after ordering 18,000 cups of water while another saw a person become increasingly frustrated when the AI repeatedly asked him to add more drinks to his order.

The fast-food chain has introduced the technology at 500 locations across the US since 2023 in an attempt to reduce mistakes and speed up orders, but the opposite impact seems to have taken place.

Taco Bell’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dane Matthews explained that deploying the AI technology has come with its challenges.

He told The Wall Street Journal: “Sometimes it lets me down, but sometimes it really surprises me.”

Matthews explained that the company was “learning a lot” and that he would now think carefully about where to implement AI going forwards, including not using it at drive-throughs.

He said that there are times when humans are better placed to take orders, particularly when the restaurants get busy.

Matthews explained: “We’ll help coach teams on when to use voice AI and when it’s better to monitor or step in.”

The Taco Bell issues have gone viral as angry customers complain about the service on social media by pointing out glitches.

A clip on Instagram that has been watched over 21.5 million times shows a man ordering “a large Mountain Dew” and the AI voice continuously responding with “and what will you drink with that?”.

Taco Bell aren’t the first company to fall foul of such problems after McDonald’s withdrew AI from its own drive-throughs when the tech misinterpreted customer orders – leading to one person getting bacon erroneously added to their ice cream and another having hundreds of dollars worth of chicken nuggets mistakenly added to their order.