Chatbots at the drive-thru are just the beginning
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How it started
In 2021, McDonald’s became one of the first major fast-food chains to greet customers with an AI chatbot at the drive-thru. It started small, deploying the voice-ordering technology at 10 of its locations in Chicago. McDonald’s developed its drive-thru tech after acquiring Apprente, a startup focused on voice-based, conversational technology in 2019, and later worked with IBM to scale automated ordering.
This was only the beginning of the AI drive-thru. Checkers and Rally’s teamed up with the AI company Prestoto put a chatbot at all corporate-owned drive-thrus in the US in 2022, with the goal...
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