For years, Chick-fil-A has worked to increase the number of people who visit its drive-thrus.
CEO Andrew Cathy still needs someone to take orders.
Cathy said the chicken chain has no plans to replace drive-thru order-takers with artificial intelligence, according to Fox Business, even as McDonald’s (MCD) and Wendy’s (WEN) move voice AI closer to customers.
Chick-fil-A wants its hospitality to remain “human to human,” according to Cathy, setting the chain apart with one of the most prominent positions in fast food.
Chick-fil-A is an intriguing counterbalance to an industry that is rushing to automate.
Archy, a voice-AI system that can accept orders in both Spanish and English, is being tested at McDonald’s. To manage the complex vocabulary, substitutions, and background noise associated with drive-thru ordering, Wendy’s has worked for years with Google Cloud to create FreshAI.
Chick-fil-A is hardly avoiding technology. Its restaurants already use mobile ordering, computerized pickup lanes, and advanced conveyor systems that speed up food delivery.
Cathy’s choice is based on where automation ends.
For Chick-fil-A, the customer conversation remains on the human side of the line.
Chick-fil-A automates the restaurant, not the greeting
The upgraded drive-thru at Chick-fil-A in McDonough, Georgia, demonstrates the company’s willingness to advance technology without eliminating staff from the customer experience.
Beneath the restaurant’s second-floor kitchen are four drive-thru lanes. Chick-fil-A claims that a conveyor system can deliver a finished meal to a worker every six seconds.
The four-lane layout can accommodate two to three times as many cars as a traditional facility, and the kitchen is twice as large as one at a standard Chick-fil-A.
Customers may use the Chick-fil-A app to make orders in advance or use a regular drive-thru lane to place an order with a staff member.
That arrangement encapsulates Cathy’s distinction. More of the transportation and logistics are handled by technology. Human workers, however, continue to manage the dialogue.
“From our experience, we really want that hospitality to be human to human,” Cathy told CNBC. “We’re not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers.”
The strategy’s origins predate the most recent surge in generative AI. Chick-fil-A highlighted hospitality as a key focus, even within a restaurant largely focused on speed and automation, when it introduced the upgraded format in 2024.
As a consequence, the fast-food model does not consider every automatable activity one that should be automated.
This is where Chick-fil-A begins to diverge from some of its largest competitors.
McDonald’s is putting AI at the drive-thru speaker
McDonald’s is making AI a central piece of a much broader restaurant overhaul.
ArchIQ, a generative-AI-enabled restaurant operating system designed to streamline operations and boost efficiency, is part of the company’s new NEXT strategy.
McDonald’s says the broader Restaurant NEXT program could eventually generate roughly 250 basis points of gross restaurant-level efficiency improvements.
More Restaurants:
52-year-old international restaurant chain closing all locations
46-year-old casual dining chain closes underperforming locations
Classic burger chain has closed down all its restaurants
The voice-ordering part is called Archy.
Global Chief Information Officer Brian Rice said at McDonald’s recent investor day that Archy processes live drive-thru orders in both Spanish and English with an accuracy of more than 90%.
Additionally, Rice said the system may potentially free up at least 50 labor hours per restaurant each week and that establishments testing Archy were generating drive-thru customer satisfaction levels above national norms.
These figures contribute to the explanation of restaurants’ interest.
For hours at a time, a drive-thru order taker does a monotonous job. Employees may transition to food preparation, fulfillment, and in-person service elsewhere if software can do the task correctly.
McDonald’s plans to employ ArchIQ for voice ordering, inventory management, linked equipment, and order-accuracy technologies, according to Restaurant Dive. Drive-thru AI is therefore seen by McDonald’s as a part of a more comprehensive productivity system.
Regarding the worth of the person on the other end of the speaker, Chick-fil-A is making a different decision.
Chick-fil-A draws a hard line as McDonald’s pushes drive-thru AI.Paras Griffin / Getty Images
Wendy’s has already put voice AI to work
Prior to the current McDonald’s experiments, Wendy’s began working with Google Cloud to create FreshAI.
The system is built around one of the most challenging aspects of restaurant automation: food orders are seldom placed in precisely standardized language.
When Wendy’s refers to the product as a Frosty, a customer may request a chocolate shake. Others talk over music and road noise, use acronyms, or alter the sequence in the middle. These variances are a major technological issue for the system, according to Google Cloud.
About 86% of orders were successfully completed by Wendy’s early FreshAI test without the need for a person to step in.
Wendy’s describes the system as an assistant to restaurant crews rather than simply a replacement for them. The idea is to allow workers to concentrate more on cooking and serving clients while the AI handles incoming requests.
In terms of philosophy, it places Wendy’s and McDonald’s shockingly close. Both chains contend that additional possibilities for personal hospitality elsewhere may be created by automating the speaker.
Chick-fil-A values the first discussion more.
Fast-food chains are testing what customers actually value
A practical real-world experiment is now taking place in the restaurant business.
Wendy’s and McDonald’s are testing AI to see whether it can speed up the drive-thru and free up staff for other tasks.
On the other hand, Chick-fil-A is investigating whether retaining someone in that position enhances the brand experience that consumers currently have.
Both approaches use significant automation. The point of contention is which aspect of the dining experience should remain untouched by it.
The prospective economics are important for McDonald’s. When applied to thousands of restaurants, even little gains in labor efficiency or order accuracy become significant.
NEXT will eventually boost restaurant profits while freeing up staff time to concentrate on customers. Wendy’s makes much the same argument for FreshAI.
Chick-fil-A seems at ease using technology aggressively in areas that patrons could hardly see, such as the equipment that transports their food.
Cathy, however, wants to see the individual who is requesting their order.
For the fast-food AI competition, that raises one crucial issue. Voice systems will continue to improve. Restaurant businesses will better understand the labor hours, accuracy gains, and revenue potential of such solutions.
Consumers will determine whether efficiency is sufficient.
Chick-fil-A is placing a wager that a single, recognizable voice at the drive-thru still has value that a quicker algorithm could find difficult to quantify.
Related: McDonald’s could soon unlock a major revenue stream