Automated Drive-Thrus
A company named Presto Voice sold its “drive-thru automation” services to Carl’s Jr, Chili’s, and Del Taco. The company claimed to let AI take your order at the drive-thru, and offered to replace drive-thru workers with its technology.
SEC filings recently revealed that humans are required to help with over 70% of Presto’s orders. Presto used offsite workers in the Philippines to listen to customer orders and manually insert them into a restaurant’s computer systems more than half the time. This was another bait and switch, where remote workers posed as true automation.
