{"id":3957,"date":"2026-06-09T13:01:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=3957"},"modified":"2026-06-09T13:01:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T13:01:18","slug":"mcdonalds-testing-ai-powered-drive-thrus-what-to-know","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=3957","title":{"rendered":"McDonald\u2019s testing AI-powered drive-thrus: What to know"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO<\/strong> – <\/span>McDonald’s customers may soon be giving their orders to a robot.<\/p>

McDonald\u2019s testing AI drive-thrus<\/h2>

Big picture view:<\/p>

<\/div>

The fast-food chain McDonald\u2019s is testing AI-enabled ordering called “Archy” powered by ArchIQ technology.\u00a0<\/p>

Read more Texas considers wood quarantines after invasive pest found in 3 new counties<\/a><\/p>

The AI service is being tested at five McDonald\u2019s restaurants in the Chicago area and is part of its test-and-learn approach to innovation.<\/p>

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n

A drive-thru sign at a McDonald’s restaurant in Martinez, California, US, on Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2025. (Credit: David Paul Morris\/Bloomberg via Getty Images)<\/span> <\/p> <\/div><\/div>

McDonald’s is continuing to evaluate technologies that can improve speed, accuracy, and experience for its customers and workers.<\/p>

At this time, the company has not confirmed plans for a broader rollout.<\/p>

Initiative part of \u2018McDonald\u2019s Next\u2019<\/h2>

The backstory:<\/p>

The initiative is part of the company’s new brand strategy called McDonald\u2019s Next, which was announced last week.<\/p>

While introducing McDonald\u2019s Next, CEO Chris Kempczinski said that customers shouldn’t have to choose between “hospitality or speed.”<\/p>

Read more Trump booed by Madison Square Garden crowd in NBA Finals<\/a><\/p>

McFranchisee, an X account for a McDonald’s franchise, said this week that Google was affiliated with the new project.<\/p>

RELATED: <\/strong>McDonald’s bets on giant burgers, secret menus and nostalgia, with US rollout still uncertain<\/strong><\/p>

“Meet Archy IQ – no, we are not new to AOT. In fact, we have been in this AI field for about 8 years,” McFranchisee wrote on X.<\/p>

McFranchisee continued, “We sold our in-house model to\u00a0IBM<\/u> and moved on as it wasn\u2019t good enough for our needs. As mentioned below, I wanted to hire Google (who uses NVIDIA) to service our AOT 3 years ago and found out today that Google is behind this project. We are currently in 5 test stores, having processed over 1M transactions with about 90% of orders completed without human escalations. Impressive for a new test.”<\/p>

Read more Teen dead, another injured after shooting in north Harris County<\/a><\/p> <\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

McDonald\u2019s is testing a new AI-powered drive-thru system called Archy. Here’s what to know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3955,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111,9,61,85,19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-consumer","category-food-and-drink","category-technology","category-u-s"],"yoast_head":"\nMcDonald\u2019s testing AI-powered drive-thrus: What to know - Houston Moving Journal<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/houstonmovingjournal.com\/?p=3957\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"McDonald\u2019s testing AI-powered drive-thrus: What to know - Houston Moving Journal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"McDonald\u2019s is testing a new AI-powered drive-thru system called Archy. 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