Taco Bell is an American multinational chain offering Mexican-inspired foods including tacos, burritos, quesadillas, and other specialty items. To its over two billion customers served each year through its more than 8,000 restaurants, Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum Brands that excites patrons to “Live Mas.”  Taco Bell’s main competitors in the fast-food industry include McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Chipotle Mexican Grill, and KFC.  Competition among fast-food restaurants is fierce as they battle to capture a segment of the U.S. $293.3 billion market and companies need to constantly innovate and offer new products and services to stay ahead.  Utilizing technological advancements helps Taco Bell and its competitors adapt and integrate innovations to enhance the customer experience.

One such technological advancement is artificial intelligence. Although the U.S. market is no stranger to the use of artificial intelligence in sectors including mapping technologies, voice-assisted smart phones, financial trading, and other uses, Taco Bell’s ambitious goal is to broaden its AI footprint by including AI technology in its drive-thru locations to the nearly 7,700 locations in the United States.  Taco Bell appears confident in its implementation of AI in their quest to optimize operations and improve customer satisfaction. This rollout comes after two years of fine-tuning and testing drive-thru AI technology, which resulted in improved order accuracy, reduced labor costs, and decreased wait times.  The “fast-food industry’s affinity for AI comes as companies see the technology as a means of replacing human workers to reduce rising labor costs” (Guardian). California’s new mandatory minimum wage law for fast-food workers provides additional impetus for AI technologies that can replace human workers. Additional benefits include decreased employees’ task load, which fueled profitable growth, as Taco Bell reported sales for the quarter at “$3.6 billion, up by 4% year over year. In addition, operating profit grew 2% from $204 million in the first quarter of 2023 to $208 million in the first quarter of 2024” (Tahir).   

Taco Bell is certainly not alone in its use of artificial intelligent technology in the fast-food industry. Other well-known goliaths in this industry such as Wendy’s, Carl’s Jr, and Del Taco all use AI technology at their drive-thrus. This “AI-first mentality” has been adopted by Wendy’s in their creation of the generative AI platform, “Wendy’s Fresh AI,” to focus on quality and meeting customers’ needs. According to Wendy’s, Fresh AI provides a personalized, responsive experience for every customer. Similarly, “Tori” is an artificial intelligence device used by Carl’s Jr. to boost accuracy, speed, and revenue in the drive-thru ordering process. At Del Taco, AI generated Presto Voice greets customers and takes their order; it is also automatically upsells. While some customers have expressed satisfaction at the use of AI technology in the fast-food industry, not all experiences have been positive. Naturally, the pitfalls of inaccurate AI have gone viral and are seen by millions of potential customers.

To AI or not to AI? Taco Bell’s implementation of artificial intelligence is in direct contrast to McDonald’s, one of Taco Bell’s primary competitors. In 2024, McDonald’s ceased its AI ordered technology after multiple customer complaints.  “McDonald's told CBS MoneyWatch that it is ending its Automated Order Taker pilot, which used AI in drive-thrus to expedite orders. The fast-food giant, which launched the tech through a partnership with IBM in 2021, isn't ready to deploy voice ordering across its restaurants. Some customers reported that McDonald's chatbot sometimes got even simple orders wrong” (Cerullo). A Tik Tok user hilariously captured an AI cashier adding nine sweet teas to an order while another video portrayed two women laughing while calling out the system to stop adding hundreds of dollars’ worth of McNuggets to their tab. Other customers note that the AI technology had issues interpreting different accents and dialects, which impacted order accuracy.

Is Taco Bell going to continue its rollout of AI technology or shutter its application like powerhouse McDonald’s did? Until the answer becomes clear, let’s order some tacos and “Live Mas.”