But real-world experiments have had mixed results. According to reports, restaurant chains such as Taco Bell and McDonald’s have stopped voice AI efforts at drive-throughs as the AI couldn’t interpret vocal orders correctly.
The technology still has a long way to go, as it’s much harder to implement than text-based AI, said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. “Voice, even with a single language like English, has a huge amount of variability, with accents — think southern drawl vs. New England ‘ahs’ — and even the same language meaning different things to different people,” he said.
On the plus side, voice is a natural way to handle inquiries, as not everyone types well, Gold said.
