Drive-Thru AI Chatbot vs. Fast-Food Worker: We Tested the Tech | WSJ
2024 ж. 15 Мам.
335 863 Рет қаралды
AI chatbots using ChatGPT tech are now taking fast-food drive-through orders across the country at chains like Hardees, Del Taco and Checkers. Made by a company named Presto, AI in drive-throughs uses automatic speech recognition to convert an order into text so the AI system can understand it.
WSJ’s Joanna Stern put the tech through a series of tests at a Hardee’s-including blasting loud sounds and confusing commands.
0:00 AI in drive-throughs
1:06 Speech recognition
2:28 Language processing
4:29 Humanness
Tech Things With Joanna Stern
Everything is now a tech thing. In creative and humorous videos, WSJ senior personal tech columnist Joanna Stern explains and reviews the products, services and trends that are changing our world.
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Imagine the employees seeing Joanna multiple times at the same drive thru arguing with the AI 😂
They probably had a heads up about this whole thing. No way you can put them on camera without their consent.
@@felixthecat2786 Definitely. She was in the kitchen for part of the story and interviewed the owner. The employees certainly knew what was going on.
@@cheechandjong897 That was a really rare sighting in general probably
Employees??? What employees? There is a reason why there is a robot taking order.
Just keep driving make these companies realize we AINT REPLACEABLE🤬
I’m curious how accurate this system is for people with thick accents or for non-English speakers.
yeah, she could have done some accents, or ask Trevor Noah for help. lol
I am sure in the future, bots will take orders in other languages.
@@Allen_Leigh_Canada AI can do this already
Actually very good!
A lot of these systems are already outperforming people who can only speak English.
So as a Chick-fil-A employee but also as a total tech nerd here are my thoughts: First, in a two lane drive thru you have two people taking orders during peak hours. These people handle both drinks, desserts and your order at the same time (yes, it's a lot). Since somebody still has to handle drinks, that means using AI only gets rid of a single employee in any scenario. Second, I think fast food employees will be more than happy about this. Taking orders on the headset is easily the most difficult job we have because we juggle so many tasks at once. Being able to focus on drinks and desserts without handling orders would be a huge help for us. Finally, I think we'll also like this because we don't have to endure the abuse some people put us through. The hard part about taking orders on drive thru is that people don't treat you as a human because they're usually in a rush and they never see your face. Not being screamed at is a plus in my books.
Drinks sounds pretty automatable. So does fries. Probably the burger paddies too if the timing is consistent. Assembling the burger is probably a little harder with all the wobbly bits.
b-b-but... AI will take our joobbbssss!!!!! U should hate them!!!!!!!!!!!!
@@yeetboi268 technology will advance either way. You can choose to accept it and adapt or stay on a sinking ship. Plus, I don’t hate the idea of not doing the most stressful position of my job anymore. I’ve chosen to accept what’s inevitable and do my best to adapt. AI isn’t a bad thing, but it will cause a huge change in how we do things. Soon we’ll largely say goodbye to monotonous work, that doesn’t mean work itself will disappear. I’m choosing to make myself valuable by learning about AI and the ways I can contribute to and use it. This is an opportunity to take advantage of this exciting revolution, just look at the billionaires that the internet made. Ride the wave, because it can either hit you or propel you.
@@think3rofficial consider going into consulting. You seem smart and intuitive!
@@aamsergie thx :)
As a person who has worked in fast food, taking drive through orders was by far the worst and most stressful position. People not knowing what they wanted, hard to understand, changing their minds halfway through their orders, repeating orders back only to have the people change their minds again, and my favorite--ordering, confirming the order after repeating it back, getting the order only to say it was wrong after they got it. We were trained on all positions and would rotate through them--and the drive through was always the least desirable.
But is job for 1 pople or 55.000 pople in usa😂
Geez, never even thought about all that. Drive thru should only be to pick up orders placed online.
And this is why I vote 'YES' for AI-asisted drive thrus
As a kid, I loved the drive through. Most customers were cool and fun to interact with.
Trust me No one spends a second more "chatting" with the fast food workers. 🤣🤣
I do -
exactly 😂
I don't know what you are talking about. Whenever I order something I do throw some small talk, especially if i'm having a good day. You on the other hand, let me guess, you're one of those people who don't even smile to the cashier, let alone talk to them like they are humans?
🤣🤣 though: small talk could be added to the data it runs on! drive thrus that DO add more in that department could advertise their bot is more personable!
I do it all the time It’s fun
In corporate apeak, the COO is saying we are intentionally understaffing our restaurants and employ AI instead so we can get big bonuses down the line
I lol'ed so bad at "I have one peach pie", it's like the AI was making joke.
A CEO saying they are not gonna replace human labor is like a CEO saying We dont care about making money this quarter. Both are lies.
I'm remembering that trick to honk the horn to skip the AI bots. LOL
This lady is funny. I like her. More of her please.
she's dope af
It failed the allergy test, i.e. the only test you gave it that could cause deaths, and you gave it a pass.
Yes.. that part is really concerning...
Came here to comment on that. That alone should be an automatic fail. If it can kill someone, it shouldn't be considered a pass
WSJ in bed with these companies
If you rely on either a simple machine OR a minimum wage worker to be able to inform you with any degree of accuracy whether the food they serve has something you are deathly allergic to... then you're not long for this world (I say this as someone with food allergies that can potentially kill me. I would never in a million years rely on the minimum wage worker at the counter or a dumb simple AI to be able to tell me if their food is dangerous to me. I research the menu item on the internet first using multiple sources.. then I order).
No that’s not correct. The company said that shouldn’t have happened so it gets a pass even though it actually failed. It’s like when you took tests in school and told the teacher you shouldn’t have gotten any wrong answers, so they change your grade from 30% to 100%.
They're not going to cut labor because they've already cut it. And it's not true that they won't cut it in the future once they figure out what an even slimmer crew can do
The job of business is to destroy jobs through capital allocation and innovation. We should stop relying on the private sector to create jobs and pass a federal jobs guarantee. That way we don't have to prop up weak companies either
The COO wasn’t being honest, hey have every intention of cutting labour, they are only understaffed because they don’t employ enough people as a means of reducing costs.
Nah. Here they are understaffed at every fast food place. It can take 10 minutes to get an incorrect order. Hardee's, BK, Carl Jr., McDonald's, Wendy's, add some, pick any.
@@OGMannyeah that’s called “not paying your employees enough” it’s why I don’t eat fast food if I can help it.
Wicked greedy elite.
Hardee's has a long history of trying to eliminate human workers. Their CEO said something along the lines of "robots don't slip and fall , get pregnant or need training." Hardee's will go full automated as soon as the technology is there.
Exactly. I caught that too. No one is going to lose a job because they’ve already intentionally been running on skeleton crews since COVID showed they could get away with it.
Saying they have no "intention" of cutting labor is corpo-speak for "not today but that's what will eventually happen".
And they already cut labor because remember that opening they couldn’t fill for the drive thru? It’s gone now and could have been a job for someone. They likely had a departure and didn’t replace the position.
@@Yeahyeah-ic8xm Exactly. They didn't "intend" to do it, but it happened.
Did anyone stop to ask if these jobs are worth retaining for actual humans? Does anyone really expect these jobs, if not replaced, to suddenly pay a living wage? COVID really showed people that these jobs simply aren’t worth having unless it’s for teens entering the workforce. I don’t think AI is a bad thing in this case.
@@TheScottAF Well, sure, the lower-skill, lower-paid jobs are going to be replaced first. As AI/robotics advances, more and more jobs will be displaced. In the long term, AI could pave a way to a nice post-labor society where nobody has to work, but in the short term, a lot of people are going to experience pain. If you aren't affected by it, it's easy to hand-wave and say "well this is a good thing because those jobs suck anyway" but for the single parent working 2 jobs just to pay rent and put food on the table, it hits a lot closer to home. It's not like these people can just upskill overnight and get better jobs.
I can't wait till AI does everything and it'll be awesome not to deal with dumb humans. lol it's sad how often humans make mistakes and AI will be premium and perfect at every single human job! awesome!! next 2028
Honestly for something so new it’s already impressive and it can be improved fast
I rather take the AI than an employee. It removes one person’s bad attitude than having two bad attitudes (employee and costumer).
A "costumer" is someone that makes costumes. A "customer" is someone who buys something.
Joanna Stern is priceless! Her reporting & stories are my WSJ favorites. Comical she gave in to the peach pie, I should have seen that coming. 😂
So the conclusion is that Chatbot can finally take drive-thru orders? Other than the allergy issue, the bot seems to work fine. This seems more like an ad for AI than reporting on AI.
Well, it’s reporting that the A.I. works (even though we already knew that)
What if I told you that this entire channel is essentially an advertising hub for corporations.
The WSJ, pro corporate rule and anti-human…imagine that?!😂
The ai had to ask for human help. That's a bad advertisement.
"So you do want a peach pie?" Them: No. "Oh ok so you do want a peach pie?" Them: Absolutely not. Salesmen in a nutshell now in bot form.
Bot failed every challenge, but she passed it twice. No Bot Left Behind.
Any fast food worker would be glad to have a robot take away the customer facing part of the job. It's the worst part of the job
No, cleaning the bathrooms is still worse.
@@Random1208 robots will do that too, google is working on robots that can cook, next up janitor robots probably.
Is still job for 50.000 pople
@@The_Questionautpeople like cooking 😂 you’re just lazy
@@Random1208exactly, where are all the toilet scrubbing AI bots?? Instead we have people who want AI to take away enjoyable jobs like art.
Joanna: How's your day been? Nobody: Would you like a peach pie with that?
But like why are you asking how their day is. I hate customers like this that want to start up conversations. Just order and go. 😅
I'm so happy you took a fast food work as an example. I don't think I would watch any WSJ videos anymore if you would do this with somebody with a higher pay grade.
White collar is on the chopping block within 2 years.
when corporations say "Oh we have AI tech or customer self-serve technology so we can focus on preparing food" it just translates to "oh to focus on not hiring anyone."
They even programmed the deceptive "up sell" question : "medium or large". The price posted is actually for "small" (or regular) fries & drinks.
This is a significant step in Carl's Jr.'s long-term business plan to transition to the business model conceptualized in the movie Idiocracy.
"One of the things I like about the drive through is talking to humans" If you like talking to humans then how about going inside the restaurant..
honestly the way it should work is that you should order on your phone beforehand, and then just scan with your phone in the drive thru line to initiate your order being cooked.
This is the way. Instead, we are made to look like idiots talking to a creepy bot because OpenAI thinks these bots are our path to AGI.
Not adding the extra necessary labor because you are using AI is in fact, cutting labor.
No. It's just not adding. Do you understand how math works?
@@TheManinBlack9054adding a negative number is still addition 😂
@@TheManinBlack9054 Let's say this restaurant usually has 7 people on at once. Now, they only need to have 6. That is cutting labour
Bot did a great job! Honestly difficult customers don't deserve to be served anyways
"we have no intention of cutting labor" also "we are understaffed" ie you have already cut labor.
Fast food workers in 2010: "We want $15/hr!" Fast food workers in 2024: "We want $20/hr!" Fast food workers in 2025: "Hello, I'm your AI order assistant. What can I get for you?"
CEO 5:31 “we have no intention of cutting labor” 😂😂😂😂
lovin the series! and also to Joanna for taking this challenge to tech soooo seriously hahahah
Would you like a peach pie? How bout a peach pie? Let’s get you a peach pie?
I'm surprised how well that Carls Jr looks and the technology it has. The one I used to work at had that old register from like two decades ago
Love seeing Joanna! she should be here more often.
I watch it over a few times, "We have no intention of cutting labor", folks at Hardees better be ready than sorry.
AI will not take jobs, people utilizing AI will take jobs from people who don’t
@@heidelbergaren5054 says the person who lost their job to AI in 2029
@@heidelbergaren5054 Yup because AI is so accessible and is not monopolized by large corporations that have the compute power.
Just like they got rid of cashiers and put self check-out registers that don't work 90% of the time the time it costs will fall on us, the customers.
Self check out registers that don't work 90% of the time? Where do you get that? I don't like self check out registers but I have used them and the only problems I've seen are due to human error.
I have the same question as the other reply. The only problem I had was when a barcode was damaged so I couldn't scan the product, and I didn't know the name of it to manually search for it.
Bot is taking orders, humans are making orders, following the machine prompts.
That is true at the moment.
As minimal wage increases more cost effective to replace with robots. Automation works 24/7 without breaks or sick days. AI and technology ultimately makes products cheaper but there are side effects
Even at minimum wage if this bot is as effective as a human employee then restaurants will use it. A minimum wage worker costs a restaurant around $50K/yr when you consider every hour the restaurant is open. A machine that can replace that worker could cost a million dollars and the restaurant would still come out ahead with the machine. And I doubt this thing costs anywhere close to that.
Probably takes up very little space if it is on the server. I wonder about the hardware side of it. BTW she's never going to"forget" the upsell. That part is annoying like YT ads.
They don’t make products cheaper and never have 😂 they only generate more profit, that’s it.
@ISpitHotFiyaa Your point may be correct but your math is off. Those machines wouldn't last anywhere near 20 years, 10 would surprise me. Also, machines need days off too, for cleaning, upgrades and repairs.
@@andrewvelonis5940AI has zero downtime. They're on a server and entirely designed to run 24/7/365
Really enjoyed the personality in this story, particularly ending with the most important conclusion of all, finally getting the peach pie
WSJ pls give Joanna a raise...her videos are so imerssive and informative..unlike others in WSJ! *not Jonanna here ;)
Why do they still have the human taking your card? Putting the card reader on the order box seems like a completely free time saver.
The video and commenters seem strangely unaware that the big problem right now is inflation, not unemployment (which is nearly the lowest it's been in decades). Tech like this is needed to slow down rising prices.
Inflation is caused by a failure to collect adequate taxes, the whole point of an economy is to create wealth, not hoard it
@@HiDefHDMusic Not really, Inflation is caused by unbridled fiat money creation and extreme overspending by the government.
@@MacXpert74 no, it’s caused by a failure to raise taxes, this is the founding principle of modern capitalism
@@HiDefHDMusic To clarify it simply: Higher taxes leads to higher wage demands, which leads to higher business costs, which leads to higher prices for the products. And that means: Higher inflation!! But the biggest source of inflation is fiat money creation, so money that has no direct goods behind it. This leads to higher debt which indeed requires higher taxes. So higher taxes = more inflation!
@@MacXpert74 none of this is true
My local Bojangles has it, kinda took me back a little lol. Was very accurate and fast, didn't upsell me anything.
If it doesn't today, it will tomorrow.
Remind me to never eat at “bojangles” whatever that is 😂
Great job , WSJ! You win a subscriber, as long as your content doesn’t suck consistently and is like this.
Things like this are why we need Universal Basic Income because this stuff will eventually take all our jobs.
What a fascinating hilarious video!! This drive-through question intrigued me because the AI bot added a verbal comma: "Would you like to make that a medium, or a large? The tone of this question made me think I had to choose which of the two I wanted. But in reality it's asking,"Would you like to upgrade that to a medium or possibly a large?" to which my answer would be "no". Maybe the tone was intentionally designed by Prism or whatever to trick customers into buying the bigger combos.
A reminder from 5:15 anytime a business says “we’re understaffed” what they’re saying is we’re unwilling to pay more or make the job better in other ways so that we have enough employees.
or that they don't want to raise the prices so much to stay profitable since consumers would balk at the prices.
@@KingJon513 European countries have similarly priced items, but much higher wages. Even in the US Chik-fil-A has reasonable prices and good wages. Low wages is usually just capitalists wanting to make profits without regard for anything else.
@@NickCBax European countries are introducing AI and robots too.
@@NickCBax The goal of a business is to maximize profits no? How do the profits of those EU fast foot spots compare to the US?
@@KingJon513 A business in the United States is not legally required to maximize profits. That is a common misconception. They could choose to do so, but they're not legally required to do so. (It comes from a misinterpretation from a company's management's requirement to maximize shareholder return when SELLING the company.) That being said, I have no clue what the profits of the EU fast food chains in comparison to the US. They're obviously acceptable because they're still in business.
What he really meant was. We're currently under staffed because we dont really want to pay a liveable wage nor deal with employees crying about unions, and raises, so we've added an AI for a fixed price but don't worry it's temporarly until it has enough data about accents and variations then it's permanent.
So what?
Some of these are problems with humans too. A human drive thru worker doesn't always hear your order perfectly either. On the other hand, the allergy situation is really concerning. It's funny that they gave the bot a failing grade on challenge 3 because the lack of human interaction is probably a huge plus for the workers. They do not want to deal with demanding customers. I would be happy to see AI / Bots / Automation take away as many jobs like this as they can, HOWEVER, I only want to see this if we are using technology to give ourselves more freedom as humans and not to make our lives worse (cause mass unemployment and inability to pay bills).
This reminds me of "dude wheres my car... and then, and then and then "😂
I lost it at the horn beeping 😂
Good to see this happening
I think I would rather have an AI chatbot then some of the people I run into in fast food.
Ah, you've been to the local burger king run by foreigners and seem to hate every minute being there
God forgive that they may accidentally teach you the difference between "then" and "than"!
@@yoloman3607 Oh of course I must be racist lol. There couldn't be any other reason I would want AI over a human right? Chik Fil A is an exception and the workers there are typically pleasant and friendly. However, many other fast food places are completely the opposite and for those I would prefer AI.
@@ZeeshanMuhammadX Guess I hit a nerve and you must work for fast food. If you are an unpleasant person which seems to be the case then I would 100% want AI over you any day. So if you actually work in fast food you are proving my point by your comment.
@@johntownPSN not being racist, it is what it is. For some reason a lot of burger kings are franchised to people who barely speak English and have crazy swings in quality. What is your problem man?
I don't care what they say - the end goal of fast food chains is to replace as many humans as possible. And at the current pace of AI and robotics I'm pretty sure that within the next 10 years or so they will need just enough people to watch over the machines.
bro put a little smiley face on the guy and it would be a hit.
I would actually respond yes to the AI taking the jobs part if it meant I got through the line quicker, could order while I wait in line so I just drive up to pick up the food or if it meant the food was hotter/fresher by predicting what items would have the most amount of demand throughout the day.
why don't we just replace all the workers with ai
@@carkawalakhatulistiwa Because you eventually cut the entire source of income for corporations. You cannot cut costs to profitability, without having revenue.
That’s called “entitlement”, I don’t want restaurants in my community unless they’re providing well paying jobs, otherwise they *should* go out of business
@@HiDefHDMusic I think the jobs are just higher paying and placed in offices, now actually their bedrooms, instead of a McDonald’s. Increased productivity is what got us here so I am all for it
@@imacuser101 all those people got fired weeks ago
AI: "....Peach pie for $1.59." DT:"No" AI:"Beach!!buy!!!"
Wow! That’s a lot of time on Kent Island! I hope the bridge traffic cooperated!
I don't like talking to computers especially when they try to pretend that they are human and it doesn't fool anyone. Doesn't need AI to take a food order.
I personally would like to see ai robots in more restaurants. Straight to the point and no bad human attitude.
I go through this exact drive thru every couple of weeks. The AI actually does a surprisingly good job. I really hate that it asks you if you want "medium or large" as if those are the only 2 choices. The prices posted on the menu board are for the "small" size. I got tricked the first time, now, when it asks "medium or large" I say small.
Now do articles by AI vs Journalist.
There will be 2 employees at every fast food restaurant in the future: one person to be there when the AI messes up and a mechanic to fix the robot arms that stop working. Any software issues can be diagnosed over the internet.
The AI might be smart enough to know if that was a real dog because I know my dogs didn’t believe it. They bark at every REAL dog who barks at them (even ones on “tv”), but not the recorded one you used. 😂
This was 9 months ago when AI was still a newborn baby. Now, AI is scary smart and it's still in its infancy.
Great video analysis - I shared a link to this in a grad course I'm teaching on leading change, thank you!
Going to be dope when my AI already knows what I want because I told it we're going to go get the same thing we got last time, which causes it to reference my history by geolocation + day/time, reference audio transcript for my order and silently communicates what I want to the window via BT or orders it before hand at the appropriate time based on my map software to determine how long it'll take the order to be made and how long it'll take me to arrive to pick it up. Boom.. Drive up, wireless pay, pick up food - all handled by agents.
Peach Pie please. Computers were made for that job. The future is excellent.
the AI be like : Is this Hardees? NO,THIS IS PATRICK!!!!
more videos on AI applications please WSJ!
Nice job! very entertaining.
I want one of those in my town. Would be a million times better than the people we have working our drive through
You've made me really hungry! I'd like to try the peach pie !!! 😂
The REAL test would be using different US accents (for example, a Southern Drawl) when ordering, and determining if the AI could understand what was being said.
The crying baby part is so funny! 😭
Now I’m really tempted to get a Peach Pie now.
After doing this job AI left this planet to explore another lives somewhere out there.
the ai was impressive. If a dog was constantly barking or a child crying while you were making your order, a human worker would get frustrated. There was a story where an employee actually told a woman he wouldn't serve her if her child didnt stop crying and she'd have to make her order inside instead. This robot didn't do that.
The "PEACHES AND CREEAAAMMMM" at the end tho 😂😂😂😂
What song is it? Chatgpt wont help me😅
@@Qyuri it doesnt really exist it was created by an AI 😂
do this test again 5 years later !! I wonder how it will work
3:09. They have the AI connected up to an MS-DOS style screen.
It probably be an improvement at some fast food places where workers speak broken English
Peach-pie makes a day like a blue sky.
i'm alright with this change for drive thru so we don't have to be asked for the ridiculous "add tip" when paying with credit card
Needs more real life testing. Like customers interrpting the order process to address barking dogs, crying babies, and forgetting what they ordered. Not to mention regulars who get testy and rude when they've declined the "peach pie" for the 50th time. Oh, and people ordering the wrong thing, like asking for Whoppers at McDonald's.
The cost to implement this way more than minimum wage employee.
This would be good in my area. When I go through the drive through at MDs, the constant issue is that the people taking the orders can't speak English. I think AI isn’t perfect, but it would be far easier to order.
I'm just disappointed that after all of that and finally caving into the peach pie, we didn't get her thoughts on it! 😂
This is perfect for noisy customers like people on the phone /dog owners / baby mamas in Hondas
I'm a huge fan of supplementing jobs with tech in restaurant spaces but not a fan of replacing humans. No matter the staffing levels places tend to always lean towards replacing and it just hurts the potential of the tech and the industry as a whole. Hoping we will eventually find a happy medium here because if properly used this tech could elevate the dining experience and ease stress on staff.
almost spat out my food watching this video when i heard the baby cry.
CEO: "Most locations are understaffed." Yeah, because you're trying to cut staff and save money. I swear, every fast food place I go to here has one person working the register and like one or two people cooking. They look miserable and stressed, running around like crazy trying to keep up or worse, completely dead inside having given up on trying to meet demand. It's sad seeing what's happening to the workforce because of corporate greed.
I love this journalist, she's great, great stories!
If it's anything like the chatbots I've encountered on the phone I'd avoid those drivethrus like the plague.
At this rate, might as well get rid of the intercom and just have everything on apps.
Why not a mobile app that display the menu and we can order while we are in the drive through. Solves time
Probably to accommodate people not good with technology like boomers. I agree tho they should have that as an alternative option.
And then you can run into the car ahead of you while you are poking at your phone.
It will be better than most drive-thru if it only responds like it cares. Customer service and quality control are the biggest challenges with human employees.