In cafes and restaurants, "AI" most often means software that takes customer orders by voice, mainly at drive-thru lanes. The public record from 2023 to 2025 is mixed: McDonald's ended a drive-thru ordering test with IBM in 2024, and in January 2025 the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission found that Presto Automation had misled investors about how much of its drive-thru ordering was automated. A claim of "AI ordering" is best read as a question: who, or what, completes the order?
Key takeaways
- Voice order-taking at drive-thrus is the best documented restaurant use of AI, with named pilots announced by Wendy's and McDonald's.
- McDonald's told franchisees in June 2024 that it would end its IBM test, which had run in more than 100 restaurants.
- The SEC's January 14, 2025 order says most orders on one Presto Voice version still needed human intervention.
- Canada's federal privacy law requires limits on collecting and keeping personal information, which matters if order audio is recorded.
- No single company or product called "Cafe AI" is documented here; the phrase is treated as a general term.
What "cafe AI" usually refers to
No verifiable product or company named Cafe AI turned up in the sources checked for this article, so the phrase is read as a label for AI tools in food service. The best documented category is automated order-taking. A speech recognition model turns a spoken order into text, a language model or menu logic maps it to items and modifiers, and the result is sent to the point-of-sale system. Menus make this harder than it sounds, because customers can change almost every item.
Wendy's described the problem in a press release dated May 9, 2023, issued with Google Cloud. The company said its menu allows billions of possible order combinations, which leaves room for error, and announced a pilot of "Wendy's FreshAI" built on Google Cloud's generative AI. The first pilot was planned for June 2023 at a company-operated restaurant in the Columbus, Ohio area. The release is a company statement of plans, not a measurement of results.
McDonald's and IBM: a test that ended
McDonald's and IBM began working together on automated order taking in 2021. On June 17, 2024, CNBC reported that McDonald's had told franchisees in a memo that it would end the partnership on that technology, with the system to be switched off no later than July 26, 2024. The test had run in more than 100 restaurants.
McDonald's said IBM remained a trusted partner and that it was not ruling out voice ordering in the future, with a decision on a future solution expected by the end of that year. CNBC also cited an analyst note that put accuracy in the low-to-mid 80 percent range, against a level of at least 95 percent that the analyst said would be needed. That figure is an outside estimate, not a number McDonald's published. The episode shows that a pilot can end without any regulator being involved: accuracy and customer experience were the test.
Presto Automation: what the SEC found
The SEC's summary of its order against Presto Automation is dated January 14, 2025. Presto sold Presto Voice, a speech recognition product for drive-thru ordering, and had been listed on Nasdaq until September 2024. The order covers statements made from November 2021 through May 2023. It says that for a period, the speech recognition in all deployed units was owned and operated by a third party, and that this was not disclosed. Later, Presto deployed units with its own technology and said this removed the need for human order-taking. The SEC states that the vast majority of drive-thru orders on that version still required human intervention, and that Presto's reported rate of orders completed without intervention was misleadingly disclosed.
Presto consented to a cease-and-desist order without admitting or denying the findings. The SEC imposed no civil penalty and cited the company's cooperation and remedial efforts. The case concerns what was told to investors, not whether voice ordering can work.
Three cases side by side
The table separates what each party claimed from what the cited record shows.
| Case | Claim or plan | What the record shows | Type of source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wendy's FreshAI | Generative AI to take drive-thru orders, pilot planned for June 2023 | Plans and rationale only; results were not verified here | Company press release |
| McDonald's and IBM | Automated order taking in test restaurants since 2021 | Test ended by July 26, 2024 after running in more than 100 restaurants | News reports of a franchisee memo |
| Presto Voice | Product described as removing the need for human order-taking | SEC found most orders on one version needed human intervention | Regulator order, settled |
Voice recordings and Canadian privacy law
If order audio is stored, or tied to a loyalty account, a phone number, or a license plate, privacy rules come into play. Canada's Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) rests on ten fair information principles, published by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada on a page last modified May 29, 2025. Two bear directly on recorded orders. Limiting collection means gathering only what is needed for the purposes an organization has identified, by fair and lawful means. Limiting use, disclosure, and retention means using information only for the purposes it was collected for and keeping it only as long as those purposes require.
Provincial laws can apply in place of PIPEDA, and rules outside Canada differ again, so a single answer does not cover every location. This article gives general information and is not legal advice. An operator with a specific question should ask a qualified privacy professional or read the primary sources listed below.
Questions to ask before trusting an AI ordering claim
- What share of orders is completed with no human involved at any point, and who measured it?
- Is any part of the speech recognition or order review done by a third party or a remote worker?
- Is order accuracy reported as a percentage of items or of whole orders, and over what period?
- Is audio stored, for how long, and is it used to train models?
- What happens when the system fails: does a staff member take over at once?
FAQ
Is there a company called Cafe AI?
None was confirmed in the sources checked for this article. The phrase appears to be a general label, and any product claiming the name should be checked through its own documentation and company filings.
Did McDonald's give up on AI ordering?
It ended one test with IBM in 2024 but said it was not ruling out voice ordering and expected to choose a future solution. This article did not verify what followed.
Was Presto Automation fined?
According to the SEC's summary, the order carried no civil penalty. Presto agreed to stop future violations without admitting or denying the findings.
Is a recorded drive-thru order personal information in Canada?
It can be, depending on whether the audio can be linked to an identifiable person. The privacy commissioner's principles on limiting collection and retention are the starting point, and provincial law may apply instead.
Related reading
- How Netflix personalizes recommendations
- Chatbots built on GPT models
- Characteristics of intelligent agents
- AI and human-computer interaction
More in AI Tools and Industry.
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Presto Automation Inc., administrative proceeding summary, File No. 3-22413, U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, January 14, 2025
- McDonald's to end AI drive-thru test with IBM, CNBC via NBC News, June 17, 2024
- Wendy's FreshAI pilot announcement with Google Cloud, press release, May 9, 2023
- PIPEDA fair information principles, Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, page modified May 29, 2025