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McDonald's Introduces AI Drive-Thru System, Sparking Customer Backlash
McDonald's just announced a major change to the drive-thru involving AI—and customers are not happy.
This week at the McDonald's Worldwide convention, the fast-food chain revealed that it will roll out a new operating system featuring artificial intelligence, two years after it discontinued a different AI ordering system. The move is part of its McDonald's Next initiative.
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On Jun 2, @McFranchisee shared the news via X, writing, "Meet Archy IQ—no, we are not new to AOT. In fact, we have been in this AI field for about 8 years. We sold our in-house model to IBM and moved on, as it wasn't good enough for our needs."
McDonald's new Archy IQ, in partnership with Google, is currently testing in five stores, although the specific locations were not shared. @McFranchisee also shared that more than 1 million transactions have been processed, with roughly 90% completed without needing human escalation.
"Every McDonald's in the US is getting their Google Edge Cloud blades installed in anticipation of this rollout," @McFranchisee added.
In the accompanying video, Archy IQ accurately took orders in both English and Spanish. It even correctly took the order of a man who simply said that he wanted his "usual."
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"Archy will not only assist drive-thru orders but act as a master brain to help managers run a better restaurant," @McFranchisee concluded. "It's like a personal assistant that alerts you to potential bottlenecks or issues."
Meet Archy IQ - no, we are not new to AOT. In fact, we have been in this AI field for about 8 years. We sold our in-house model to IBM and moved on as it wasn't good enough for our needs.
As mentioned below, I wanted to hire Google (who uses NVIDIA) to service our AOT 3 years… https://t.co/JR8QHQNyKJ pic.twitter.com/e0syxiQwre
— McFranchisee (@McFranchisee) June 3, 2026
Related: Starbucks Reportedly Bringing Back Fan-Favorite Frappuccino Perfect for Summer
In the comments, many customers voiced their displeasure with McDonald's plans to implement AI in its drive-thru once again.
One disgruntled X user wrote, "Just so your company, McDonald's, and anyone reading this understand: We all hate the system installed at Wendy's. We hate the kiosks at McDonald's, Wendy's, and Taco Bell that we are asked to use instead of talking to a person. We will hate this too. Say goodbye to customers."
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Another shared, "No one wants this—we like dealing with smiling faces."
Someone else pointed out, "No wonder people are lonelier than ever now. Can't even order a meal and talk to someone anymore. Also, these suck. I went to a Bojangles that had this. I was trying to ask a question, it didn't work, then I asked for a cup of ice water, and it put in a 3 dollar bottle of water."
A different X user snarked, "Nothing like putting more people out of work!"
Meanwhile, yet another customer commented, "God no...we need to stop AI, this is ridiculous...all because you want to stop having real people behind the register. Everyone is going to hate this."
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As of writing, it's unclear when Archy IQ will officially roll out beyond the five test stores.
Next: Wendy's Brand-New Frosty Flavor Has Fans Saying They Need It Immediately
This story was originally published by Parade on Jun 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Food & Drink section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
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