Yum! Brands Partners with Nvidia to Accelerate AI Integration in Fast Food Chains

AI ordering is taking over fast food restaurants - here's where you'll see it next

Last fall, Yum! Brands said it was bringing AI ordering to hundreds of Taco Bell locations. After that rollout was a success, it is expanding that technology to even more restaurants and incorporating AI in even more ways. Also: AI agents aren't just assistants: How they're changing the future of work today In a press release this week, Yum! Brands announced a partnership with NVIDIA to develop AI technologies for its restaurants around the globe. The company is the world's largest restaurant company, with more than 61,000 locations, including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill. Voice automated order-taking AI agents: Both drive-thrus and call centers at selected restaurants will feature conversational AI that adapts to human speech patterns, understands complex menus and customer preferences, suggests add-ons, and enables a more natural ordering experience. Also: Want to win in the age of AI? You can either build it or build your business with it Computer vision-enhanced operations: Restaurants will use computer vision to optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management by using real-time analytics and alerts. If AI senses that a certain time of day is usually busier, for example, it can adjust staffing. Accelerated restaurant intelligence: AI will analyze restaurant performance and generate personalized action plans for restaurant managers. If a restaurant is struggling in an area that leads to slowdowns or inaccurate orders, AI can suggest changes. If a certain restaurant is doing something that leads to success, AI can detect what's different and suggest changes to other stores. Yum! says it is targeting 500 restaurants across its lineup to receive the new technology. Wendy's has introduced similar technology at some of its stores, bringing AI order-taking to hundreds of locations and even a bilingual AI to locations in Florida and Ohio. McDonald's pulled the plug on AI ordering last summer, opting to stick with humans. Also: 4 ways to get your business ready for the agentic AI revolution The company added that an even bigger expansion of AI is on the way, including AI agents with sentiment analysis that can provide personalized customer interactions. I've encountered AI ordering at several locations, including at Bojangles, a North Carolina-based chicken and biscuits chain. It was jarring at first, but now I find myself choosing locations I know have AI because the process is significantly faster and more accurate.

Why KFC and Taco Bell may be most Americans' first taste of AI agents

Last fall, Yum! Brands said it was bringing AI ordering to hundreds of Taco Bell locations. After that rollout was a success, it is expanding that technology to even more restaurants and incorporating AI in even more ways. Also: AI agents aren't just assistants: How they're changing the future of work today In a press release this week, Yum! Brands announced a partnership with Nvidia to develop AI technologies for its restaurants around the globe. The company is the world's largest restaurant company, with more than 61,000 locations, including KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger & Grill. Voice automated order-taking AI agents: Both drive-thrus and call centers at selected restaurants will feature conversational AI that adapts to human speech patterns, understands complex menus and customer preferences, suggests add-ons, and enables a more natural ordering experience. Also: Want to win in the age of AI? You can either build it or build your business with it Computer vision-enhanced operations: Restaurants will use computer vision to optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management by using real-time analytics and alerts. If AI senses that a certain time of day is usually busier, for example, it can adjust staffing. Accelerated restaurant intelligence: AI will analyze restaurant performance and generate personalized action plans for restaurant managers. If a restaurant is struggling in an area that leads to slowdowns or inaccurate orders, AI can suggest changes. If a certain restaurant is doing something that leads to success, AI can detect what's different and suggest changes to other stores. Yum! says it is targeting 500 restaurants across its lineup to receive the new technology. Wendy's has introduced similar technology at some of its stores, bringing AI order-taking to hundreds of locations and even a bilingual AI to locations in Florida and Ohio. McDonald's pulled the plug on AI ordering last summer, opting to stick with humans. Also: 4 ways to get your business ready for the agentic AI revolution The company added that an even bigger expansion of AI is on the way, including AI agents with sentiment analysis that can provide personalized customer interactions. I've encountered AI ordering at several locations, including at Bojangles, a North Carolina-based chicken and biscuits chain. It was jarring at first, but now I find myself choosing locations I know have AI because the process is significantly faster and more accurate. Get the morning's top stories in your inbox each day with our Tech Today newsletter.

AI Agents Have a New Job: Getting You Your Late-Night Crunchwrap Supreme

The next time you place an order at a KFC, Taco Bell, Habit Burger, or Pizza Hut drive-thru, you might be speaking to an AI assistant. Yum Brands, the parent company of the four fast-food chains, has teamed up with Nvidia to deploy a voice-automated, order-taking AI agent at its drive-thru centers. The AI agent is capable of adapting human speech patterns and can understand complex menus and customer preferences, the two companies said in a joint statement. The company has already been testing AI drive-thrus at select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in the US and plans to roll it out to 500 more in the second quarter of this year. The tool will also be used for Yum's call center operations. Apart from Yum, Wendy's and McDonald's have also tried using AI for drive-thrus. Wendy's FreshAI was piloted in 2023 using Google Cloud's generative AI technology. McDonald's AI chatbot, on the other hand, was developed in partnership with IBM and launched in 2021 before being rolled back last year. Yum's AI implementation goes beyond order-taking, though. Last year, it introduced an AI-powered app to help its workers prepare meals. Workers could type queries into the app to get the recipe instead of reading it from printed or digital material. Adding to that, Yum will now be using Nvidia's computer vision tech to optimize the efficiency of its drive-thru lane and back kitchen. It will also use AI-driven analytics to assess the performance of its restaurants and create action plans inspired by top-performing ones.

Taco Bell parent Yum Brands partners with Nvidia to speed up its use of AI

The restaurant company, which owns Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, said on Tuesday that the collaboration will allow Yum to roll out AI order-taking, Nvidia-powered computer vision and restaurant performance assessments fueled by AI. As tech giants compete in an AI arms race, restaurant companies have also been using the technology to stay ahead of rivals by improving their operations and saving money on labor. Fast-food chains have been testing AI to take drive-thru orders, check the accuracy of orders, decide how to schedule workers effectively and place supply orders. Many restaurant chains besides Yum have sought partnerships with tech giants. McDonald's teamed up with Google Cloud and Wendy's supply chain co-op partnered with Palantir, among other deals. But not all partnerships have been successful. McDonald's ended its collaboration with IBM on voice AI in June, although the burger giant said IBM remained a "trusted partner." The partnership is Nvidia's first with a restaurant company. It also marks a shift in strategy for Yum, which has used a slew of acquisitions to build up its internal tech operations, now housed under its Byte platform. Yum will own the intelligence from the partnership, allowing the company to customize it as needed, like integrating more advanced AI models. Yum has already been piloting Nvidia technology in some Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations. A broader rollout of the technology is expected to hit more than 500 restaurants across Yum's portfolio during the second quarter. The terms of the Nvidia partnership were not disclosed, but Yum said it was "subject to mutually agreeable definitive agreements." Shares of Nvidia have climbed 35% over the past year, while Yum's stock has risen 14% during the same period. Investors have largely remained bullish on AI, although Nvidia's stock has lost some steam over concerns about competition and the broader economy. Nvidia's market cap of $2.9 trillion dwarfs that of Yum, which has a market cap of $43.8 billion.

Nvidia partnership to expand AI use in KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell restaurants

Serving tech enthusiasts for over 25 years. TechSpot means tech analysis and advice you can trust. What just happened? AI is everywhere these days, including at many fast-food outlets where the technology is used to take drive-thru orders. Now, thanks to a partnership between Nvidia and Yum! Brands, owner of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, AI adoption at these restaurants is being accelerated - and it won't just be at the drive-thru. Announced during the Nvidia GTC conference, Yum! Brands says its strategic partnership with Nvidia has the goal of deploying multiple AI solutions using the company's hardware in 500 restaurants, including Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC, and Habit Burger and Grill, starting in the second quarter of 2025. Yum has already been piloting Nvidia tech in some Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations. Fast food chains have been testing AI to take drive-thru orders for a while now. Wendy's was one of the first to announce a trial of such a chatbot, made possible through a partnership with Google, at one of its restaurants in its home state of Ohio in 2023. Yum's partnership with Nvidia - the tech giant's first with a restaurant company - will see Team Green's technology harnessed by Byte by Yum!, Yum's proprietary and digital AI-driven restaurant technology platform. The company aims to build new, more advanced AI voice ordering agents in under four months. Beyond taking orders, Yum will also be using AI in other areas. One example is using computer vision software to analyze drive-thru traffic so the AI can optimize speed by alerting and adjusting staffing. Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, told Business Insider that when things get busy at the drive-thru, the AI might suggest selling some quicker-turnover items instead of large, complex items that might take longer. Yum writes that its AI agents are also being deployed in call centers to handle phone orders when demand surges during events such as game days. Nvidia's AI hardware will also be used to analyze performance metrics across thousands of restaurant locations to generate customized recommendations for managers, identifying what top-performing stores do differently. Not all restaurant companies' partnerships with tech firms have been successful. In June 2024, McDonald's announced it was ending its two-year automated order taking (AOT) drive-thru experiment and partnership with IBM. It had implemented the system in around 100 locations, but there were plenty of customer videos showing it getting orders wrong. McDonald's did say, however, it was confident that voice AI would be part of the restaurant chain's future. Yum's announcement, unsurprisingly, did not mention any potential impact the partnership and additional AI agents might have on human jobs, other than stating it would "assist and enhance the team member experience."

AI on the Menu: Yum! Brands and NVIDIA Partner to Accelerate Restaurant Industry Innovation

The world's largest restaurant chain and parent company of KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill is accelerating AI deployment with NVIDIA AI to streamline order taking, optimize operations and enhance service across its restaurants. The quick-service restaurant industry is a marvel of modern logistics, where speed, teamwork and kitchen operations are key ingredients for every order. Yum! Brands is now introducing AI-powered agents at select Pizza Hut and Taco Bell locations to assist and enhance the team member experience. Today at the NVIDIA GTC conference, Yum! Brands announced a strategic partnership with NVIDIA with a goal of deploying multiple AI solutions using NVIDIA technology in 500 restaurants this year. World's Largest Restaurant Company Advances AI Adoption Spanning more than 61,000 locations, Yum! operates more restaurants than any other company in the world. Globally, customers are drawn to the food, value, service and digital convenience from iconic brands like KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. Yum!'s industry-leading digital technology team continues to pioneer the company's AI-accelerated strategy with the recent announcement of Byte by Yum!, Yum!'s proprietary and digital AI-driven restaurant technology platform. Generative AI-powered customer-facing experiences like automated ordering can help speed operations -- but they're often difficult to scale because of complexity and costs. To manage that complexity, developers at Byte by Yum! harnessed NVIDIA NIM microservices and NVIDIA Riva to build new AI-accelerated voice ordering agents in under four months. The voice AI is deployed on Amazon EC2 P4d instances accelerated by NVIDIA A100 GPUs, which enables the agents to understand natural speech, process complex menu orders and suggest add-ons -- increasing accuracy and customer satisfaction and helping reduce bottlenecks in high-volume locations. The new collaboration with NVIDIA will help Yum! advance its ongoing efforts to have its engineering and data science teams in control of their own intelligence -- and deliver scalable inference costs, making large-scale deployments possible. "At Yum, we have a bold vision to deliver leading-edge, AI-powered technology capabilities to our customers and team members globally," said Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer of Yum! Brands, Inc. and president of Byte by Yum!. "We are thrilled to partner with a pioneering company like NVIDIA to help us accelerate this ambition. This partnership will enable us to harness the rich consumer and operational datasets on our Byte by Yum! integrated platform to build smarter AI engines that will create easier experiences for our customers and team members." Rollout of AI Solutions Underway Yum!'s voice AI agents are already being deployed across its brands, including in call centers to handle phone orders when demand surges during events like game days. An expanded rollout of AI solutions at up to 500 restaurants is expected this year. Computer Vision and Restaurant Intelligence Beyond AI-accelerated ordering, Yum! is also testing NVIDIA computer vision software to analyze drive-thru traffic and explore new use cases for AI to perceive, alert and adjust staffing, with the goal of optimizing service speed. Another initiative focuses on NVIDIA AI-accelerated restaurant operational intelligence. Using NIM microservices, Yum! can deploy applications analyzing performance metrics across thousands of locations to generate customized recommendations for managers, identifying what top-performing stores do differently and applying those insights system-wide. With the NVIDIA AI Enterprise software platform -- available on AWS Marketplace -- Byte by Yum! is streamlining AI development and deployment through scalable NVIDIA infrastructure in the cloud. The bottom line: AI is making restaurant operations and dining experiences easier, faster and more personal for the world's largest restaurant company.

Nvidia, Yum! Brands to bring AI ordering to more Taco Bell drive-thru lanes

Driving the news: Yum! -- the world's largest restaurant company with more than 61,000 locations -- and Nvidia announced an "industry-first collaboration" Tuesday. The big picture: Artificial intelligence can help restaurants simplify and speed up the drive-thru experience, which could boost sales and cut costs. Zoom in: Joe Park, Yum! Brands' chief digital and technology officer, told Axios they've already "begun piloting AI solutions in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations." Between the lines: Yum! also plans to use AI to improve order accuracy and to use AI-driven analytics to access restaurant performance. Yes, but: AI ordering had some notable hiccups for fast-food rival McDonald's. More from Axios:

AI is taking over your favorite fast food restaurants as Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC team up with Nvidia - 500 locations by the end of 2025

Last year, Yum! Brands, the company behind Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC, introduced AI to some drive-thru locations. Now the company plans to roll out AI ordering at 500 different restaurants later this year. If you've been to one of the more than 100 AI-powered restaurants across 13 U.S states already, you may have already ordered a Crunchwrap Supreme by speaking to AI. For the rest of us, who've yet to experience an AI server, your closest Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, or Habit Burger might offer the service soon. In a press release, Yum! Brands announced the new AI partnership with Nvidia that will see artificial intelligence implemented in some of the company's 61,000 restaurants across the globe. In fact, the company is "Nvidia's first AI restaurant partner." "Yum! and Nvidia are planning to transform the future of dining by unlocking scalable AI applications quickly, reliably and affordably." But what does that mean exactly? Well, restaurants chosen for this AI rollout will receive voice-automated order-taking AI agents which the company says will "advance drive-thru and call center operations with conversational AI." Elsewhere, the operations side of the restaurants will be improved by AI, with Yum! stating AI will help with analytics to ensure better-performing locations. AI drive-thrus, yes please (under certain circumstances) Now, I love fast food just as much as the next person. And, in fact, I hate drive-thrus because I often get a sense of dread as I roll down my window to speak to someone over an intercom. Will replacing drive-thru employees with AI make the fast food experience better for me? I guess that depends if you think human comprehension is better than artificial intelligence's. Personally, I'm all for more efficient fast food restaurants as long as the use of AI doesn't replace human workers. If this partnership with Nvidia allows Yum! to lay off thousands of employees then I fear for the mass restaurant exodus we'll experience over the next few years. As always, use AI to compliment and facilitate your employee's jobs and you're onto a winner. Use AI to replace humans, and that's the dangerous territory that gives reason to the AI-skeptics out there. One things for sure, if you hate AI, you might have just unlocked an epic fitness hack. Because now there's a chance you never want to order at your local KFC again. You might also like

More KFC, Taco Bell, and Pizza Hut locations will get AI-powered drive-thru ordering

A robot could never make a Crunchwrap. Credit: Carolyn Robb for The Washington Post via Getty Images You might want to become familiar with the Taco Bell mobile app. That's because parent company Yum! Brands are rolling out an AI chatbot that you'll use to order at the drive-thru at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, and KFC locations in the second quarter of 2025, according to a company press release. The tech, which was developed in partnership with Nvidia, allegedly "enables a more natural, seamless ordering experience" through the use of a conversational chatbot that "adapts to human speech patterns," among other things. At first glance, it's unclear how this is different from the AI drive-thru ordering that has been available at some Taco Bell locations since last year. Regardless, it's clear that chain restaurants are moving in this direction, at least for the time being. Wendy's recently committed to a similar initiative, while McDonald's experimented with it (poorly) last year. It's true that human employees can and often do misinterpret orders, especially through the crackly speakers of a drive-thru, but it's very easy to imagine AI messing up orders in new and surprising ways that humans could never dream of. However, you can order ahead in the mobile app and not have to deal with this at all, if you want to.

Chipmaker Taco Bell taps chipmaker Nvidia

Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut are pulling onions following the McDonald's E. coli outbreak Joe Park, Yum chief digital and technology officer, said the goal of the partnership is to create easier experiences for customers and employees, and provide franchises with "better, faster, cheaper, and safer technology," while maximizing shareholder returns. The collaboration will focus on three key areas for Yum: voice AI ordering for drive-thrus and call centers, computer vision to optimize operational efficiency, and restaurant intelligence, using AI-generated analytics to boost performance. Pilot programs for these technologies are already underway in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations across the U.S., with plans for a broader rollout targeting 500 restaurants across all Yum brands in the second quarter. Yum also owns KFC and Habit Burger & Grill. Taco Bell has been exploring AI for several years. In July 2024, chief innovation officer Lawrence Kim said Yum had been testing AI voice technology for two years. By then, over 100 Taco Bell drive-thrus in 13 states had already implemented the technology. As the AI race intensifies among tech giants, restaurants are increasingly adopting the technology to stay competitive. AI has already become a mainstay in Big Food, with chains like McDonalds (MCD+0.87%), Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's (WEN-1.49%) using it to streamline operations, reduce labor costs, and boost efficiency. Chick-fil-A is using robots to cut and squeeze lemons, while Wendy's is using AI to help it manage Frosty demand. This partnership marks Nvidia's first venture into the restaurant sector. It also signals a strategic shift for Yum, which has historically built its tech operations through acquisitions. By partnering with Nvidia, Yum will own the AI intelligence created, allowing it to customize the technology to its needs. Although the financial terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, both Yum and Nvidia have seen stock growth, with Yum up 14% over the past year and Nvidia's stock rising 35%.

Taco Bell Piles on More AI While Customers Plead "Just Bring Back The Enchirito"

These days, it seems like artificial intelligence is infesting every corner of life. The well-financed tech has strangled the internet as we know it, ruined once-beloved artists, and dragged cherished news outlets to ruin. With the avalanche of slop cascading from corporate America, it's probably no surprise that fast food executives are trying to shoehorn the tech alongside the Cinnabon Delights and Quesaritos of that beloved American institution, Taco Bell. On Tuesday, Yum Brands -- the parent company of Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut -- announced it was partnering with tech giant NVIDIA to "integrate AI into the restaurant and retail industry at an unprecedented scale." In a press release, the company hyped up its three-pronged approach to integrate AI into the fast food experience. Using proprietary software called "Byte by Yum," the food conglomerate says it will soon be using AI to take orders, keep track of cars waiting in the drive-through, and analyze restaurant sales performance. All that stuff might be exciting for shareholders, but it remains to be seen what the response is from consumers, many of whom are repulsed by AI-powered customer service. Despite this, retailers are embracing innovations like AI surveillance cams that falsify shoplifting reports, vending machines that sell ammo with facial recognition, and artificial car salesmen that agree to sell brand new Chevvy Tahoes for $1, forcing the dealership to renege on the offer. Cramming AI into fast food, you might argue, is pretty innocent in comparison. And it would be, if not for the army of workers manning tens of thousands of fast food stores throughout the US. For those workers, Byte by Yum is less a schlocky AI grab, and more an expansion of the tech-fueled panopticon of wage labor. Specifically, Yum will be using AI to expand its "Computer Vision Enhanced Operations" -- the same system it wants to use to track cars idling in the drive-through -- to optimize "back-of-house labor management through real-time analytics and alerts." Translation: it wants to use AI surveillance to track low-wage employees. It's a pretty dystopian goal when you consider the median fast worker makes just $29,540 a year, well below what most would consider a livable wage. (Yum Brands CEO David Gibbs, meanwhile, is worth an estimated $52 million.) Evidently, the Yum's C-suite executives feel there's more to squeeze from their overstressed workforce, and AI is just the tool for the job. Though Yum's national rollout of AI-surveillance might be the biggest, it's far from the first. Last year, a Forbes investigation reported an experimental new AI system going live in over 100 hundred franchised Dairy Queens, KFCs, and Taco Bells throughout the US. That program was used to track employee's conversations, speed in the kitchen, and wasted food. What Yum's proprietary software tracks will be anyone's guess. These days, corporations are using technology to more and more invasive ends, like to track bathroom breaks and monitor workers' health. Customers, meanwhile, just want Taco Bell to bring the damn Enchirito back.

AI could take your next drive-through order: Taco Bell parent Yum Brands and Nvidia's partnership explained

Fast food customers might find themselves talking to an artificial intelligence voice the next time they order tacos or pizza at a drive-through. Yum Brands Inc., the parent company of Irvine-based Taco Bell and other popular fast food chains such as Pizza Hut, KFC and Habit Burger & Grill, has teamed up with tech juggernaut Nvidia to advance the development of AI in the restaurant industry. The fast food giant, based in Kentucky, announced the partnership this week at Nvidia's GTC conference, the chipmaker's annual developer conference. Billed as the Super Bowl of AI, the event attracted thousands to San Jose. Restaurants have been experimenting with technology, including AI voices and robots that could shape the industry's future. The race to release new AI tools has raised familiar questions about whether technology will replace certain jobs or create new ones. With food delivery apps making it easy to order meals from various restaurants without leaving the house, the competition continues to heat up. "Over the last five years, the world's accelerated into digital. The restaurant industry is no different," Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer of Yum Brands, told an audience at a GTC session Tuesday. Digital sales make up more than 50% of the company's total sales, up from 19% in 2019, he said. How are Nvidia and Yum Brands teaming up? The world's largest restaurant company plans to use Nvidia's technology to power more AI agents that can take orders at drive-throughs and call centers, according to a news release from Yum Brands. AI-powered tools can also analyze a vast amount of data to improve drive-through efficiency and back-of-the-house labor management. Yum Brands, which has its own technology platform, is also using AI to assess a restaurant's performance and generate action plans for restaurant managers as they learn more about why certain locations perform well. Nvidia offers products that allow businesses to build or speed up the development of AI systems that can converse with people and perform tasks. Yum Brands started piloting AI tools at some Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants in the United States. The company plans to roll out AI solutions in 500 restaurants across Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC and Habit Burger during the second quarter. The company has more than 61,000 restaurant locations. Yum Brands said it isn't sharing the location of its pilots and didn't disclose the terms of the partnership. Nvidia didn't respond to a request for comment. How can AI improve fast food ordering? By making fast food ordering even faster. AI could speed up the time it takes for a person to order food at a drive-through or call center, especially during big events like game days when demand could surge at popular restaurants. Park said at GTC that AI could also improve the customer experience because "the voice AI is always positive, has the right tone of voice, has the right word selection, can upsell consistently." On average, the total amount of time a customer spends in a drive-through is five minutes and 29 seconds, according to a 2024 drive-through study by Intouch Insights. The study, which involved shoppers placing orders at the drive-throughs of fast food restaurants, found that only 4% of visits involved AI technology, but the total time spent was faster by 29 seconds. The use of AI for ordering food is still experimental. Yum Brands said its digital and technology strategy aims "to better serve its franchisees, providing them with better, faster, cheaper and safer technology while delighting consumers and maximizing shareholder returns." Has Taco Bell experimented with AI before? Yes. Last year, Taco Bell said it rolled out voice AI technology in more than 100 of its drive-throughs across 13 states and planned to use them in hundreds of locations. "Benefits include easing task load for team members, improving order accuracy, providing a consistent, friendly experience, and reducing wait times, while driving profitable growth for Taco Bell, Yum! Brands and their franchisees," Taco Bell said in its news release. What about other restaurants? Wendy's, White Castle, Panda Express, McDonald's and other fast food restaurants have also been trying out AI-powered voice ordering. The pilots don't always go off without a hitch. Some customers have complained on social media, posting videos about problems they've encountered with order accuracy at drive-throughs with AI voices. As restaurants train these AI systems, they're anticipating they'll get better over time. Last year, McDonald's ended its partnership with IBM and planned to remove AI ordering from more than 100 restaurants, according to an internal email obtained by trade publication Restaurant Business in June. The fast food chain suggested it still thought AI drive-throughs would be part of the future and it was looking for a new partner. 2025 Los Angeles Times. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.

AI will soon be taking your drive-thru orders at 500 Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC locations

Through a partnership with technology company Nvidia, fast-food giant Yum! Brands said it will begin rolling out AI at hundreds of its locations starting in April and continuing through June. That includes using the company's voice-ordering tech, which will handle complex menu orders and navigate customer speech patterns, according to a news release this week. "Looking ahead, Yum! is expanding AI to help team members manage complex tasks, including AI agents that plan, reason and act to assist across restaurants," the parent company said in the release. The rollout will incorporate more advanced AI capable of language models, emotional comprehension and personalized customer reactions, according to Yum! Brands. Nvidia's AI technology has already been used at select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut restaurants during "a successful pilot" stage, Yum! Brands said. The technology is expected to "optimize drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management through real-time analytics and alerts." Wendy's, McDonald's have also used AI for drive-thru orders Yum! Brands joins other fast-food companies, like McDonald's and Wendy's, that have experimented with AI at its locations. During a Feb. 13 earnings call, Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner said the company will deploy voice-enabled AI to take orders at up to 600 restaurants nationwide after executives "really liked" the results of the pilot program, which incorporated the technology at nearly 100 locations. Tanner added that FreshAI "improves the customer experience and enables some labor efficiencies in our restaurants." Meanwhile, McDonald's ended a pilot AI program last July after customers reported the tool got orders wrong. In 2021, the fast food giant partnered with IBM to test-run the AI ordering technology at over 100 locations, according to CNBC and Fox Business. "While there have been successes to date, we feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly," Smoot's memo said, per CNBC. "After thoughtful review, McDonald's has decided to end our current partnership with IBM on AOT ... IBM remains a trusted partner and we will continue to utilize many of their other products across our system." Some fast food customers frustrated by use of AI While some may be open to the use AI at fast food chains, others have gone to social media to voice their frustration and shock.

Taco Bell Is Teaming Up With a Major AI Firm to Speed Up Service -- And Increase Accuracy

In a move that marks one of the most significant AI collaborations in the quick-service restaurant (QSR) industry, Yum! Brands -- the parent company of Habit Burger, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and other QSR brands -- is integrating products from Nvidia to streamline operations, improve customer experiences and drive efficiency. "At Yum!, we have a bold vision to deliver leading-edge, AI-powered technology capabilities to our customers and team members globally," Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands, said in a statement. "This partnership with Nvidia will enable us to harness our rich consumer and operational data sets to build smarter AI engines." Related: Considering franchise ownership? Get started now to find your personalized list of franchises that match your lifestyle, interests and budget. With more than 61,000 restaurants under its umbrella -- including Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger -- the Yum! Brands partnership with Nvidia focuses on drive-thru automation, order processing and real-time analytics. The company has already begun testing Nvidia-powered AI in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations across the U.S. According to a statement, the technology rollout includes: Related: Taco Bell Is More Than 60 Years Old -- Here's the Brand's Secret to Staying Relevant, According to Its CEO Following the initial pilot phase, Yum! Brands plan to expand the AI-powered solutions to 500 Taco Bell, KFC, Pizza Hut, and Habit Burger locations in the second quarter of 2025. The integration will enhance Byte by Yum!, the company's proprietary AI-driven restaurant technology platform, allowing franchisees to optimize operations more efficiently. "Nvidia's software makes it affordable for even the largest restaurant company to improve operations and customer experiences, proving AI can pay off at every location," Andrew Sun, Nvidia's global director of retail, said in a statement. "Working with Yum! Brands' best-in-class digital and technology team and proprietary Byte by Yum! platform to integrate Nvidia AI software breaks barriers to AI innovation in the restaurant industry."

Taco Bell Parent Accelerates AI Innovation With Nvidia | PYMNTS.com

The partnership will help scale Yum! Brands' existing proprietary AI-driven restaurant technology platform Byte by Yum!, according to the release. "This partnership will enable us to harness the rich consumer and operational datasets on our Byte by Yum! integrated platform to build smarter AI engines that will create easier experiences for our customers and team members," Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum! Brands and president of Byte by Yum!, said in the release. The AI solutions will include voice-automated order-taking AI agents for drive-thru and call center operations, computer vision for optimizing drive-thru efficiency and back-of-house labor management, and AI-driven analytics and agents for assessing restaurant performance and generating personalized action plans for restaurant managers, according to the release. Yum! Brands has already piloted several AI solutions in select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations and, after the success of the pilot, plans to roll out the technology to 500 Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, KFC and Habit Burger restaurants during the second quarter, the release said. Looking ahead, the company plans to continue expanding its use of AI and integrate more advanced AI models, developing solutions that will be built with the latest Nvidia software and be proprietary to Yum!, per the release. Andrew Sun, global director of retail, CPG and QSR business development at Nvidia, said in the release that working with the Yum! Brands team and platform to integrate Nvidia AI software "breaks barriers to AI innovation in the restaurant industry -- delivering real-time, context-aware intelligence, powered by a scalable inference platform." Yum! Brands said in February that the Byte by Yum! AI-driven platform was already in use at 25,000 international locations and will be rolled out throughout its global locations. In November, the company said that it had processed over 2 million successful orders with the drive-thru voice AI system it had in place in over 300 Taco Bell stores in the U.S. and that many franchisees were eager to test this innovation at their own locations.

Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut parent teams up with Nvidia to integrate...

Yum Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, KFC, and Habit Burger & Grill, is teaming up with Nvidia to boost its artificial intelligence-powered technology at its restaurants which will soon be equipped with voice-activated order-taking at drive thrus. Over the coming months, several advanced AI-driven solutions will be introduced across Yum Brands locations, according to the company. One of the major implementations will be voice-activated order-taking AI, which will manage drive-thru orders and call center operations -- improving accuracy and efficiency. Designed to understand natural speech, the AI can adapt to customer preferences and menu changes in real time. Another innovation includes computer vision-enhanced operations, where Nvidia's cutting-edge computer vision tools will optimize restaurant workflows by providing real-time insights. These tools will streamline drive-thru services and improve kitchen operations through data-driven alerts and analysis. AI-powered analytics will also be leveraged to evaluate restaurant performance, providing managers with personalized action plans based on insights from high-performing locations. This intelligence will aid decision-making and operational adjustments to maximize efficiency, according to Yum Brands. "This partnership will help us tap into the rich consumer and operational data sets on our Byte by Yum platform to build smarter AI systems, making experiences easier for both our customers and team members," said Joe Park, chief digital & technology officer at Yum Brands. Initial testing is already underway at select Taco Bell and Pizza Hut locations in the US. The company plans to roll out the AI-driven technology to 500 restaurants across its brands by the second quarter of the year. These innovations will be fully integrated into Byte by Yum, the company's proprietary digital platform launched earlier this year. Byte serves as a central hub for online and mobile ordering, payments, inventory and labor management. Over time, Yum Brands has phased out older systems, consolidating all digital operations under Byte to streamline restaurant management. It is unclear whether the company plans to lay off workers whose jobs could be performed by AI-powered technology. The Post has sought comment from Yum Brands. AI is expected to displace millions of jobs worldwide in the coming years, with estimates ranging from 400 million to 800 million workers needing to transition to new roles by 2030. In the US, AI-driven automation has already contributed to layoffs, particularly in tech and customer service sectors. Some studies suggest up to 38% of jobs could be at high risk. However, AI is also expected to create new opportunities, especially in fields like machine learning and data science -- with demand for AI specialists projected to grow significantly. Some researchers argue that AI will primarily transform jobs rather than eliminate them, with only a small percentage of positions being completely replaced.