Major fast-food brands are expanding the role of employees in ordering, restaurant layouts, drive-thru operations and training. The changes follow years of automation, including McDonald’s kiosks in 2016, Wendy’s FreshAI drive-thru system in 2023 and McDonald’s ArchIQ chatbot, introduced earlier this year through its “McDonald’s > NEXT” initiative.
Customer preferences have not shifted as quickly. Fortune reported in July that about 80% of diners would choose a person over an AI system. Burger King President Tom Curtis told The Wall Street Journal that customers value a welcoming human presence. Burger King is redesigning some locations to give face-to-face service more prominence.
The Wall Street Journal reported that efforts at McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks and Wendy’s include more welcoming greetings, employees available to handle complaints and checks to verify orders. Portillo’s has workers take drive-thru orders outside rather than depending only on its menu board and speaker. The Chicago-based chain also added baristas to train employees to begin exchanges with people in line, according to QSR Magazine.
Commentary cited by the reports said workers offer judgment, accountability and observations that automated systems cannot match, while technology can still support restaurant operations.
