Taco Bell is accelerating its deployment of voice AI technology across its U.S. drive-thru locations through a continued partnership with artificial intelligence company Omilia. The Mexican food chain will expand the system to more restaurants, aiming to automate order taking while adapting to menu changes and stock levels in real time.
Yum, the parent company, has heavily invested in technology across its brands, launching Byte, a proprietary software-as-a-service platform that includes artificial intelligence. Taco Bell’s rollout of various drive-thru technologies has not been entirely smooth. In March 2025, Yum partnered with Nvidia to create a drive-thru voice AI using Yum’s tools and Nvidia frameworks, deploying it to about 500 restaurants. However, by August 2025, Yum had to slow down and rethink deployment after customers complained about the technology and others were able to troll the system by ordering massive amounts of items, like 18,000 cups of water.
Omilia’s system automates order taking and adapts to each restaurant’s menu and adjusts to real-time stock levels and current limited-time offers. It also adapts to filter out road noise, understand different accents and complex order modifications. The platform uses proprietary small language models that provide “ultra-low latency, context-sensitive transcription specifically tuned for the acoustic challenges of the drive-thru lane,” according to the press release.
While the technology claims to interpret and reason on customer input—including slang, humor, mid-order changes, and complex customizations—the implementation history suggests that maintaining a human-like conversational flow in a noisy, high-volume environment remains difficult. The decision to lean on an outside provider like Omilia implies that internal development or partnerships with hardware-focused companies like Nvidia may not be the best fit for a seamless customer experience.
“Omilia’s platform has proven itself at scale in select U.S. restaurants, and continuing this strategic partnership supports our long-term digital and tech strategy,” Dane Mathews, global chief digital and technology officer at Taco Bell, said in a statement.
Competitors follow similar paths
Other chains have been looking into and are actively deploying voice AI. McDonald’s said it would explore automated order taking as part of its Next strategy. It tried voice AI at the drive-thru through a partnership with IBM, but ended that test in 2024. Other chains, including Wendy’s, Dairy Queen and Zaxbys, have deployed AI at the drive-thru as well.
McDonald’s continues to test automated order taking despite the failure of its IBM partnership. The fast-food giant is reportedly working with Google Cloud to integrate similar technology. McDonald’s also faces the issue of driver frustration, as recent data indicates that QSR traffic drops 4.4% in May. This decline suggests that even with technological advancements, customer patience for slow or glitchy drive-thru experiences remains a significant hurdle for the industry.