The first AI to be laid off? McDonald's shuts down IBM's AI for ordering without leaving the car

The latest media reports indicate that McDonald's is about to end its AI drive-thru ordering pilot project in collaboration with IBM, marking the conclusion of their two-year partnership.

Currently, McDonald's has tested IBM's chatbot technology in over 100 stores in hopes of improving the efficiency of its drive-thru ordering service. However, according to an email sent by McDonald's to its franchisees, the company plans to halt this AI ordering project and seek new partners to develop and promote AI voice ordering technology.

Mason Smoot, McDonald's U.S. Chief Restaurant Officer, stated in the message to operators: "While we have had some success with our collaboration with IBM, we believe there is a greater opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions."

He further noted that McDonald's will discontinue all IBM technology currently being tested by July 26, 2024, and aims to make a decision on the future voice ordering solution by the end of this year.

McDonald's revealed to the media that the purpose of the pilot project was to test whether chatbots could speed up the drive-thru service, and the collaboration with IBM enhanced their confidence in the voice ordering solution, which will continue to evaluate long-term, scalable technological solutions.

Furthermore, McDonald's announced a partnership with Google in December last year to jointly deploy generative AI technology. This collaboration has sparked widespread speculation in the industry about McDonald's potential adoption of Google's AI technology in the future