Burger King is changing some restaurant layouts and developing service initiatives intended to increase contact between employees and customers, according to a Wall Street Journal report cited by The Independent. Burger King President Tom Curtis told the Journal that customers want to deal with a person and that the company should give that experience more attention.
The effort follows years of automation. McDonald’s added ordering kiosks in 2016, and Wendy’s launched its FreshAI drive-thru system in 2023. McDonald’s later rolled out ArchIQ, a drive-thru AI chatbot, through its McDonald’s > NEXT initiative, Fortune reported. In July, Fortune said roughly 80% of diners preferred ordering from a human rather than an AI agent.
Planned changes at McDonald’s, Burger King, Starbucks and Wendy’s include livelier greetings, employees available to handle complaints and worker checks of orders for accuracy, the Journal reported. Portillo’s has sent employees outside to take drive-thru orders instead of depending only on a menu and speaker. The Chicago-based chain also had baristas train workers to begin conversations with customers, according to QSR Magazine.
The Prep said human workers offer accountability, judgment and observation that automated systems lack.