Dairy Queen is testing artificial intelligence in the drive-thru, joining a growing list of fast-food companies looking for ways to automate the ordering process through voice-recognition technology.

The company is currently expanding a test of an AI voice ordering system to several dozen franchised locations across the United States and Canada. Published reports in the Wall Street Journal and Reuters have placed the current system’s order-taking accuracy at about 90%, while Dairy Queen leadership has stated they want that figure above 99% before considering a broader rollout.

Local perspective

While the national brand explores these automated options, there has been no public indication that the Berea Dairy Queen is part of the current pilot program. In fact, when I pulled through our local drive-thru today, I was greeted by the same friendly staff I’ve come to expect.

This distinction is important. While the industry at large trends toward automation, the "local voice" remains the standard on Prince Royal Drive.

Remote voice 'friction'

When a company replaces a local voice with a remote system or an AI assistant, the transaction may become more efficient on paper, but it often feels less personal and less trustworthy. I have already seen this shift affect my own buying habits.

When a nearby Wendy’s moved to a remote ordering system—where the person taking the order was no longer actually in the building—I stopped using that drive-thru. The same thing happened when a local bank moved its drive-thru interaction toward a remote, call-center-style setup.

The stakes at a financial institution are obviously higher than at a fast-food window, but the trust gap is the same. Maybe those systems save money and provide technical efficiency, but if the experience changes enough to add friction, customers will eventually change their behavior.

Industry-wide experiment

Dairy Queen is part of a larger wave of automation. McDonald’s recently concluded a large-scale AI test, and other chains like Taco Bell and White Castle continue to explore automated ordering to reduce labor pressure.

From the corporate side, the goal is consistency. From the customer side, success depends on how much delay the tech adds. A drive-thru is meant to be the path of least resistance. If the AI struggles with accents or requires a human to step in to fix a mistake, the customer doesn't experience "innovation"—they experience a bottleneck.

Local presence still matters

There is a community value in human service that doesn’t show up in a corporate spreadsheet. When you pull into a local restaurant or pharmacy, part of the value is knowing the people helping you are connected to the same town. They know the regulars, they know the local pace, and they can tell when something "sounds off" because they live here, too.

Technology isn't the enemy—online ordering and mobile banking are great when they are reliable options. The concern is when companies treat human interaction as an unnecessary cost rather than a core part of the service.

Consumers have final say

The biggest lesson for these chains is simple: customers vote with their habits. If AI drive-thru ordering is seamless and fast, people will use it. If it feels awkward or unreliable, customers will quietly go somewhere else.

The future of fast food may very well include AI voices at the speaker box, but companies should be careful not to confuse "new" with "better." Sometimes, the most valuable part of the transaction is a real person who is actually in the building.

About the Author Chad Hembree is a certified network engineer with 30 years of experience in IT and networking. He hosted the nationally syndicated radio show Tech Talk with Chad Hembree throughout the 1990s and into the early 2000s, and previously served as CEO of DataStar. Today, he is based in Berea as the Executive Director of The Spotlight Playhouse, proof that some careers don’t pivot, they evolve.