Chick-fil-A Keeps Human Drive-Thru Ordering as McDonald's and Wendy's Push AI

Moneywise.com under the title··US·Read original
2▲0 ▼0Impact / 5
Summary · why it matters

Chick-fil-A will not hand drive-thru ordering over to artificial intelligence, even as rivals McDonald's and Wendy's race to automate the service, CEO Andrew Cathy said. Cathy told CNBC the company wants hospitality to stay human to human and will not substitute that interaction with technology. McDonald's has introduced Archy, an AI-powered drive-thru system that takes orders, suggests extras and helps ensure items make it into the bag, and says it is already handling real orders in English and Spanish with accuracy rates topping 90 percent. Wendy's has been developing its FreshAI drive-thru technology with Google Cloud, using generative AI to take orders, understand custom requests and answer questions. A 2025 Intouch Insight study of AI-powered drive-thru visits found AI got orders right 83 percent of the time, compared with 87 percent across the study overall, and customers using AI were more likely to have to repeat themselves. Chick-fil-A has not sworn off technology entirely: its drive-thru restaurant in McDonough, Georgia, opened in 2024 with four drive-thru lanes underneath the kitchen and a conveyor belt that sends meals down to workers below, an order arriving as often as every six seconds, a setup Chick-fil-A says can serve two to three times as many cars as a regular restaurant. Chick-fil-A brought in about $23.9 billion in U.S. sales in 2025.

Impact on assets 3

Consumer Discretionary▲
McDonald’s Corporation
MCD
± MixedTechnologyrelevance

McDonald's Archy AI drive-thru is cited as the automation rival Chick-fil-A is declining to match, with no clear positive or negative outcome stated.

The Wendy’s Co
WEN
± MixedTechnologyrelevance

Wendy's FreshAI drive-thru with Google Cloud is described as an ongoing AI push, but the article gives no clear win or loss for Wendy's.

Artificial Intelligence▲

Off-coverage companies 2

Chick-fil-Ai
Private▲ PositiveTechnologyrelevance

Chick-fil-A's CEO says it will keep human drive-thru ordering rather than replace hospitality with AI, a deliberate strategic stance.

Intouch Insight Ltd.i
Private± Mixedrelevance