# Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, Generative AI, IT Leadership

Published articles for Artificial Intelligence, Digital Transformation, Emerging Technology, Generative AI, IT Leadership.

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## McDonald's reintroduces AI at drive-thrus

DevFeed: [McDonald's reintroduces AI at drive-thrus](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/mcdonald-s-reintroduces-ai-at-drive-thrus-50540.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://www.cio.com/article/4222701/mcdonalds-reintroduces-ai-at-its-drive-thru.html>)

Author: Alberto Bellé

Published: 2026-09-18T10:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [CIO](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/cio.md>)

Topics: [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>), [Automation](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/automation.md>), [self-service](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/self-service.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [artificial-intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/artificial-intelligence.md>), [artificial-intelligence-digital-transformation-emerging-technology-generative-ai-it-leadership](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/artificial-intelligence-digital-transformation-emerging-technology-generative-ai-it-leadership.md>), [automation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/automation.md>), [digital-transformation](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/digital-transformation.md>), [emerging-technology](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/emerging-technology.md>), [generative-ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/generative-ai.md>), [it-leadership](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/it-leadership.md>), [product](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/product.md>), [self-service](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/self-service.md>)

### AI overview

The article examines McDonald's decision to revive Archy, its AI voice assistant for drive-thru ordering, after an earlier deployment was shut down. It describes problems with accents, dialects, ambient noise, operating costs, limited progress, and the operational pressure that motivated revisiting the initiative.

### Source excerpt

At its global convention in Las Vegas in June, McDonald's unveiled its strategy for the coming years. Among the announcements was one about the company's AI platform ArchIQ and its order-taking voice assistant Archy, in limited testing, at a handful of drive-thrus in the US. In the summer of 2024, efforts of a similar system were shut down and the company subsequently told franchisees it was terminating its global order automation agreement, and no further phase was communicated. This wasn't just a trial run. It was deployed for three years since its launch in 2021, with an automated voice handling the drive-thru window at about a hundred US locations. What happened during that time is known primarily through videos of customers experiencing a parody of errors. Sources familiar with the tech later explained that the system had several difficulties, including interpreting different accents and dialects. Behind closed doors, however, the problem was documented long before it reached social media. Analysts following the project noted franchisees' discontent not seeing progress, and updates were infrequent. So the numbers didn't add up. The system had to be cost-effective compared to having a person at the counter, and it failed to offset operating costs. When it was shut down, the company declined to comment. Two years later, though, the technology has advanced but underlying challenges of dialects and ambient noise at the order windows remain. No one repeats a move, though, that costs three years, a public retreat, and a collection of critical videos, so the question isn't so much what's new about Archy, but why McDonald's decided to revisit this AI initiative. Always in the picture The day the system shut down, the company stated that the project gave them confidence that a self-service voice ordering solution would still be part of their future, and the case for a comeback became urgent. In August this year, after reporting lower than expected results in the US, CEO