- Nvidia announced a partnership with Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell and KFC, which would integrate its AI tech into the fast-food chain’s drive-thru ordering systems, as well as make suggestions to both customers and staff that would improve wait times and efficiency. McDonald’s and Wendy’s have similarly integrated AI, but with mixed success, with some customers complaining of wildly incorrect orders.
Taco Bell customers can now order guac with chips—or rather, order guac with the help of semiconductor chips.
Yum! Brands, the restaurant conglomerate behind Taco Bell, KFC, and Pizza Hut, will partner with tech juggernaut Nvidia to incorporate AI into its ordering and operations, Nvidia announced Tuesday.
Yum! Brands will use the tech to take drive-thru and call orders, and speed up wait times by suggesting specific menu items to customers that take a short time to prepare. The technology can also count the number of cars in a drive-thru line and generate action plans for chain managers, analyzing the practices of the best-performing locations, a Yum! Brands spokesperson told Fortune. The restaurant conglomerate plans to roll out the new tech in 500 locations by the end of the year.
Nvidia’s partnership with Yum! Brands, its first foray into restaurant collaborations, will help the fast-food giant scale its Byte by Yum! AI-driven software launched last month with the goal of streamlining more than 300 million annual digital transactions. About 25,000 of Yum!’s 61,000 global locations use at least one Byte by Yum! product, which has helped cut down on food wait times and better track delivery orders, according to the company.
Nvidia and Yum! Brands have both enjoyed strong years, with the tech giant reporting a 126% revenue explosion to $60.9 billion in fiscal 2024, though continued hype has tempered over fears of increased competition and economic uncertainty. Yum! saw a 7% year-over-year revenue growth to $7.07 billion in 2024, mostly thanks to Taco Bell sales.
Fast food’s AI shortcomings
Integrating AI into ordering systems has been a mouthwatering venture for fast-food chains, as automation technology has allowed them to save on labor costs, improve order accuracy, and improve operational efficiency. Since 2019, McDonald’s has bought or invested in AI firms to speed up order-taking, and in 2023 it began using Google Cloud for real-time data analysis. Wendy’s similarly announced plans last year to integrate AI into its digital menu. The tech would suggest certain menu items to customers based on the weather or time of day.
So far some of these AI experiments, much like a soggy French fry, have been a flop. McDonald’s ended its two-year partnership with IBM in 2024, which had the technology taking drive-thru orders. The change came after numerous customers on social media bemoaned wildly incorrect additions to orders, from nine sweet teas to pats of butter.
Wendy’s diners had a similar reaction to the announcement of its AI-powered digital menu, fearing it would lead to surge pricing and further drive up food costs—something the company denied.
A fresh partnership
Raghuram Iyengar, a professor of marketing at UPenn’s Wharton School and faculty director of innovation, experiential learning and research initiatives and analytics, is optimistic about Nvidia and Yum! Brands’ partnership. Even in the last six months, AI has advanced, hopefully enough to resolve some of the hiccups other fast-food chains encountered, he told Fortune.
During that time, many have also grown more acclimated to AI, using ChatGPT or other voice-activated AI search tools. As a result, fast-food restaurants may have to contend less with skittish or skeptical customers. But some of the success of future AI integration into fast-food ordering will depend on consumers’ appetites to engage with the technology in areas beyond their phone or computer screen.
“The caveat, of course, is when you think about many of these consumers interacting with these voice agents, would they want to do it in every part of their lives?” Iyengar said.
Importantly for Nvidia and Yum! Brands, the partnership makes sense, Iyengar argued. Yum! Brands is not a tech company, and its collaboration with Nvidia could help it hone its AI applications without wasting resources. Meanwhile, Nvidia, known primarily for chip production, has the chance to prove it can also be nimble in its applications—especially as investors continue to pressure the company to live up to its sky-high market cap of $2.89 trillion.
“This is a good bet for Nvidia itself,” Iyengar said. “How can they work on providing services to other companies?”
