McDonald's Trials Archy IQ AI Drive-Thru, Stirring Customer Pushback

McDonald's is piloting Archy IQ, an AI-powered drive-thru system developed with Google Edge Cloud, in five stores as part of the McDonald's Next initiative. The system can take orders in English and Spanish and helps managers by flagging bottlenecks, with over 1 million transactions processed and about 90% completed without human escalation. A broader rollout beyond the five test locations hasn't been announced, while customers express frustration over AI replacing human interaction and concerns about jobs.