Wendy’s Expands Its AI Drive-Thru to Communicate in English and Spanish

With 2023 sales of $12.3 billion, Wendy’s is America’s fifth-largest fast-food chain, so clearly, it knows how to put Crispy Chicken Biggie Bags into the hands of as many consumers as possible. But beyond speed and efficiency, Wendy’s aims to improve another element of customer service: its ability to communicate with more people. This week, in an effort to “enhance the customer ordering experience and provide greater accessibility” to its food, the company announced that its FreshAI drive-thru technology has begun piloting Spanish language capabilities. 

Wendy’s began experimenting with FreshAI, its partnership with Google Cloud, in early 2023. The company employed Google Cloud’s generative AI and large language model (LLM) technology at the drive-thru lanes to enhance service, integrating the smart order-taking assistant with the restaurant’s existing point-of-sale system. This test began at four Ohio Wendy’s locations and now exists at 28 locations in Ohio and Florida. 

“Think of Wendy’s FreshAI as an assistant — not a replacement — to empower Wendy’s crew members working the drive-thru,” Wendy’s said of the technology in December 2023. “Wendy’s FreshAI allows our crew to focus on what matters most: preparing and serving hot and delicious food customized for our fans and building the relationships that bring them back.”

Allowing customers to order in the language they feel most comfortable speaking is certainly one way to increase their chances of returning to the restaurant. And given that 42 million Americans speak Spanish at home, expanding FreshAI in this way only makes sense. 

Those who wish to communicate their order in Spanish can simply say “Spanish” or “Español” into the microphone, at which point the FreshAI system switches over to the desired language for the duration of the ordering process. Wendy’s has indicated that this capability could expand to more markets and languages as the tech develops. 

Wendy’s has repeatedly pointed out that its system is not just powered by AI, but generative AI. The key difference is that traditional AI chatbots, the ones that have existed for decades, rely primarily on a pre-programmed set of rules to which the user must adhere. (Think of a customer service phone tree when you say, “I just want to speak to a human, for crying out loud,” and you get slapped with a, “Sorry, I didn’t understand that. Try saying something else.”) By contrast, generative AI can, in theory, adapt more easily to inputs it hasn’t encountered before, driving what Wendy’s describes as “a personalized, responsive experience for every customer.” 

This tech is not without its growing pains. In its initial testing, Wendy’s found that 14% of orders handled by FreshAI required human intervention to correct inaccuracies, and that was when it was only processing orders in one language instead of two. However, since Wendy’s appears to be all-in on generative AI, using that tech to expand inclusiveness is unquestionably the right move. In fact, Wendy’s isn’t even the first out of the gate with a bilingual drive-thru—Checkers and Rally’s partnered with Hi Auto in 2023 to roll out the same tech.  

There’s some speculation that the generative AI bubble might be ready to burst, with Bloomberg reporting that the money being poured into such initiatives by Google, Microsoft, and other companies has failed to pay off in a way that would incentivize future investment. But if the tech takes a tumble, Wendy’s knows a thing or two about pivoting away from big plans that once felt concrete: Just before rolling out FreshAI last year, the chain largely scrapped its previous plan to build 700 ghost kitchens by 2025. Much like AI-powered drive-thrus, Wendy’s is all about adapting and responding to customer behavior.