Why McDonalds Kicked AI To The Curb And What It Means For IBM’s Watson

To view the decision in context, McDonald’s partnership with IBM was a pilot program with extremely limited exposure to its nearly 14,000 US locations. 

The ordering technology was only tested on a small percentage of drive throughs at no more than 150 locations, maybe less, so the world’s most valuable franchise wasn’t exactly all in from the start of the experiment.  

And while the discontinuation of McDonald's AI drive-thru pilot program does reflect some challenges for IBM Watson, it's not necessarily a definitive "black eye" for the technology. 

In all fairness, the data story is a mixed bag. The new AI drive-thru order management system showed promise in some areas with McDonalds reporting that the restaurants using the voice-ordering technology were seeing about 85% order accuracy. 

When Close Isn’t Good Enough

Although this could be characterized as a significant achievement, it still performed well below the 95% accuracy rate needed to avoid disappointing roughly 1 out of every 10 customers. 

And since bad word of mouth travels 10 times faster than the good kind, it doesn’t take long for angry customers to dominate the narrative. 

IBM Watson leadership can argue that “only” about 20% of orders needed to be taken by human employees at the locations where the AI was implemented but apparently that was a defect rate McDonalds wasn’t willing to live with. 

Where The Squeaky Wheels Are Loudest

The 2 out of 10 orders from AI that needed to be fixed were causing massive delays at the drive thru window and placing undue stress on employees coming to the technology’s rescue, obliterating any arguments about reduced labor costs and improved efficiency. 

It’s interesting to note that the AI system promised benefits such as understanding complex customer requests, offering data driven recommendations based on past orders are still very much in demand going forward but the technology will augment rather than replace humans. 

Robots Not Replacing Humans Anytime Soon 

Meanwhile, IBM is still working on improving and expanding its natural language processing technology for drive-thru applications. 

In fact, IBM has been rolling out additional features to more McDonald's drive-thrus, aiming to enhance the automated order technology. 

Technology In Early Stages Needs Time To Evolve

The fast food industry's adoption of AI technologies has faced various hurdles, not unique to IBM. Other companies like Wendy's and Taco Bell are also experimenting with AI in their operations, facing similar challenges.

For its part McDonald's has entered into a new partnership with Google, which may have influenced its decision to end the IBM Watson implementation. This suggests that the move might be more about strategic business decisions rather than a complete failure of the technology.

While the discontinuation of the McDonald's AI drive-thru program does highlight some limitations of the current technology, it's more accurate to view it as a learning experience in the ongoing development of AI applications in the fast food industry. 

IBM Watson and other AI technologies continue to evolve and find applications in various sectors, despite facing challenges in specific use cases.

The Tower Of McBabel 

In particular, the AI initiative that began in 2021, aiming to enhance order accuracy and speed through voice-activated systems faced significant challenges, particularly with interpreting various accents and dialects, which led to numerous customer complaints regarding incorrect orders. 

Reports highlighted amusing yet frustrating customer experiences, such as the AI mistakenly adding excessive items to orders which caught fire in social media where random inaccuracies go viral. 

Despite these setbacks, McDonald's maintains that there is still potential for AI in their drive-thrus. Leaders express optimism about future voice-ordering solutions and plan to explore alternatives more broadly. The company has stated that it will continue its collaboration with IBM on other projects. 

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