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McDonald’s is ending its AI ordering system at some of its drive-thrus — for now, the company said on Monday. The fast food giant said in a statement to TODAY.com that it had decided to end its partnership with IBM on an automatic order taker (AOT) using AI technology.

“Through our partnership with IBM, we have captured many learnings and feel there is an opportunity to explore voice ordering solutions more broadly,” a representative for McDonald’s said in the statement. “After thoughtful review, McDonald’s has decided to end our current global partnership with IBM on AOT beyond this year. IBM remains a trusted partner and we will still utilize many of their products across our global System.



” The partnership began in 2021 to help “growing demands” on the company’s restaurant teams, and to “determine if an automated voice ordering solution could simplify operations for crew, and create a faster, improved experience” for customers, McDonald’s said at the time. “As we move forward, our work with IBM has given us the confidence that a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants’ future,” the McDonald’s rep said. The company added that it still sees a “tremendous opportunity” to advance restaurant technology, and that it will make a decision on “a future voice ordering solution by the end of the year.

” The end of the partnership comes after . Some of the failures had gone viral online, from 2022 where a man st.

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