Major Changes Coming to Louisiana Fast-Food Drive-Thru Lines

In Louisiana, we love our cars. We don't love our roads, but for the most part, we are just fine with the vehicles we drive. No, we don't like our Louisiana car insurance rates, but that doesn't prevent us from wanting to drive every where we go. You can deny that fact but you know it's true.

What's the first question you'll get asked if you suggest a visit to Le Festival de Mardi Gras a Lafayette? Or a visit to the Crawfish Festival in Breaux Bridge, or a visit to Patty in the Parc for St Patrick's Day? That question is, where are we going to park? We all want to take our own cars.

Restaurants figured that out a couple of decades ago. In today's modern food service landscape, if you don't have a drive-thru then you're missing out on a lot of business. Many fast-food restaurants have event adopted a drive-thru-only posture for evening and overnight customers.

And while we love the drive-thru and the convenience it offers, we also hate the drive-thru because of the mistakes that get made. Believe it or not, that's an issue that many of your favorite fast-food franchises have been working to solve. and apparently, the folks at Wendy's are devising a plan to get you in and out of their drive-thru with a correct order by using technology.

During an earnings call last week the CEO of Wendy's Kirk Tanner told those listening that the company would be deploying "voice-enabled AI order taking" at up to 600 of its restaurants across the country. That means when you pull up to the drive-thru the voice you hear won't be that of a real human working there.

Wendy's actually launched the program back in 2023 and through testing in some 100 different drive-thrus has decided to move forward with the technology. The program is called FreshAI and the hope is the high-tech approach to drive-thru deficiencies will minimize human error and speed up the process.