Wendy’s Just Announced a Major Drive-Thru Change

With more and more automation entering the fast food landscape, the drive-thru experience is becoming increasingly high-tech. The pros: We get to our hot fries and crispy sandwiches even quicker. The cons: many, many cases of robot-to-person miscommunication. In fact, so many hilarious videos of McDonald’s ordering issues have surfaced online, the company decided to pull the plug on its chatbot ordering systems completely.

However, not all fast food giants are backing away from the challenges posed by AI assistance. Some are leaning into the budding technology, making revolutionary changes to drive-thru operations that will—hopefully—close the communication gaps and get every order right, every time. 

Wendy’s, for example, just began piloting a new feature on its AI operating system that aims to eliminate order errors and make the drive-thru experience more inclusive.

Wendy’s Announces a Change in Drive-Thru AI

In 2023, Wendy’s rolled out Wendy’s FreshAI, an advanced AI platform developed in partnership with Google Cloud, in select markets. The goal was to improve operating systems and “[overcoming] the challenges traditional AI could not solve in the drive-thru,” according to a brand statement.

One of those challenges? Language barriers. So, Wendy’s is now configuring FreshAI to accept orders in Spanish, the second most common language in America. This update should make the restaurant experience easier and more inclusive for Spanish speakers as well as improve the efficiency of order processing overall, minimizing errors and speeding up service times. 

How to Use Wendy’s Spanish-Speaking AI

When a customer pulls up to the drive-thru, they can say “Spanish” or “Español” into the microphone at the start of their order, and the AI will switch to Spanish for the rest of the transaction.

Wendy’s has been clear that the interactive technology is being used to assist, not replace, Wendy’s restaurant staff, so the crew can “focus on what matters most: preparing and serving hot and delicious food customized for our fans and building the relationships that bring them back,” a brand statement reads.

Right now, Spanish is the only alternate language supported by FreshAI, but if all goes well, the ground-breaking technology will open doors to a multi-lingual operating system in the not-too-far future, making the quick service experience simpler and more comfortable for customers with primary languages outside of English.

In the great fast food race to stay modern and relevant, it seems Wendy’s is currently setting the pace.