A firm providing AI drive-thru tech to fast food chains actually relies on human workers to take orders 70% of the time

• Presto Automations provides AI-powered drive-thru chatbots to take orders in place of humans.
• It recently said that over 70% of its orders are actually assisted by off-site human workers.

A restaurant tech firm that provides AI drive-thru chatbots acknowledged that over 70% of its orders are actually assisted by off-site human workers, according to an SEC filing in November.

Presto Automations, a drive-thru automation technology provider adopted by fast food chains in the US like Del Taco, Hardee's and Carl's Jr., previously claimed that over 95% of orders received by its chatbots were taken without staff intervention. The company even announced a collaboration with OpenAI in March 2023 to utilize ChatGPT to enhance its drive-thru voice assistant features for more natural and human-like interactions.

However, in the recent SEC filing, the company said it actually largely relies on human agents — or what it calls "humans-in-the-loop" — to assist the AI in receiving orders.

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"Currently, over 70% of orders taken by our Presto Voice solution require human agent intervention," it said in the filing. "As we continue to improve our AI accuracy and further deploy Presto Voice across store locations, we believe that the percentage of orders that do not require any human agent intervention will reach 30% or better."

It added that further increasing automation of orders will increase the company's profitability.

Presto said that off-site workers based in places like the Philippines that assist the chatbots will becoming increasingly expensive, Bloomberg reported.

In its most recent cost-cutting measures in November, the company laid off roughly 17% of its global full-time employees as well as reducing its monthly expenditures.

Business Insider reached out to Presto for comment, but did not immediately hear back outside regular working hours.

Restaurant chains across the US are increasingly relying on AI to take orders and eventually reduce the amount of human labor needed. Among those chains are McDonald's, Taco Bell, Popeyes, and Wingstop, all of which are using AI-powered voice bots to take orders at the drive-thru and over the phone.

Wendy's is one such company that is automating its drive-thru service and training its chatbot to recognize customer lingo when taking orders and suggesting better offers.

Although Wendy's CEO Todd Penegor said the chatbot won't replace its human workers, chief information officer Kevin Vasconi said the chatbot is "as good as our best customer service representative, and it's probably on average better."