McDonald’s Is Testing AI Drive-Thrus Again — Even After the First Attempt Failed

​A few years ago, if someone told you that an AI system would be taking your order at a drive-thru, it might have sounded like science fiction.

Today, it’s becoming reality.

McDonald’s is currently testing a new AI-powered ordering system called ArchIQ in a small number of restaurants in the United States.

The system can take customer orders, process changes, communicate in multiple languages, and even help monitor restaurant operations behind the scenes.

What’s particularly interesting isn’t the technology itself.

It’s the fact that McDonald’s is trying again.

Some readers may remember that the company previously tested an AI ordering system developed with IBM.

That pilot didn’t go as planned.

Customer complaints began appearing online, including examples of incorrect orders and unusual mistakes that quickly spread across social media.

Eventually, McDonald’s ended the trial.

For many companies, that might have been the end of the story.

But apparently not.

Instead, the company has returned with a new system developed with Google’s technology.

That raises an interesting question.

Why keep investing in AI after a public setback?

The answer may be simpler than it first appears.

The potential benefits are enormous.

A drive-thru doesn’t just involve taking orders.

It involves speed.

Accuracy.

Staffing.

Customer experience.

Kitchen coordination.

Equipment monitoring.

And ultimately, profitability.

If AI can improve even a small percentage of those areas across thousands of restaurants, the impact could be significant.

At the same time, the challenges remain obvious.

Ordering food sounds simple until you think about how people actually speak.

Customers change their minds.

Speak quickly.

Use slang.

Order multiple items at once.

Interrupt themselves.

Ask questions.

And sometimes change the order halfway through.

Humans handle those situations naturally.

For AI, it’s much harder.

That’s why I think this story reflects something bigger than fast food.

It highlights where AI currently stands.

The technology is becoming increasingly capable.w

But companies are still learning where it works best and where human involvement remains essential.

Interestingly, McDonald’s CEO has also suggested that as more parts of the customer journey become automated, interactions with human staff may become even more important.

That might sound contradictory.

But perhaps it isn’t.

The more technology handles routine tasks, the more valuable genuine human interaction becomes when customers actually need help.

Looking at this latest trial, I don’t think the most important question is whether the AI succeeds immediately.

The more interesting question is whether companies believe the long-term benefits are worth continuing to improve the technology after early failures.

Because one thing is becoming clear.

Many organisations are no longer asking whether they should explore AI.

They’re asking how to make it work better.

And that may be one of the biggest signs of how seriously businesses are taking the technology.

Source: https://tinyurl.com/2w5k4yt2
McDonald’s testing ArchIQ AI ordering system following earlier IBM drive-thru trial.

Curious — if you pulled into a drive-thru, would you prefer placing your order with AI or speaking to a human employee?

Why Learning Basic AI Skills May Soon Be as Important as Learning Basic Computer Skills

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Not long ago, knowing how to use a computer was considered a specialist skill.

Many people relied on others to help them send emails, create documents, or navigate software.

Today, those tasks are considered normal.

In fact, most employers expect a basic level of computer literacy without even mentioning it.

That got me thinking about AI.

Are we approaching a similar moment?

Not where everyone becomes an AI expert.

But where having some basic AI skills becomes increasingly useful in everyday life.

When I say “AI skills,” I’m not talking about coding or building advanced systems.

I’m talking about simple things such as:

• knowing how to ask clear questions
• using AI to organise information
• improving written communication
• summarising long documents
• researching a topic more efficiently
• understanding when AI might be wrong

These are practical skills that ordinary people can learn without a technical background.

What’s interesting is that many people are already developing these skills without realising it.

Every time someone refines a prompt to get a better answer, they’re learning.

Every time someone checks an AI response against another source, they’re learning.

Every time someone uses AI to save time on a task, they’re learning.

The process often feels informal.

But the skills are real.

I’ve noticed this myself.

The difference between a vague question and a clear question can completely change the quality of an AI response.

The technology might be the same.

The result isn’t.

That suggests something important.

As AI tools become more common, the advantage may not belong to the people with access to AI.

It may belong to the people who know how to use it effectively.

That’s very similar to what happened with computers.

Eventually, the technology became widely available.

The difference came down to how people used it.

Of course, learning AI doesn’t mean relying on it for everything.

If anything, one of the most valuable skills may be knowing when not to trust the first answer you receive.

AI can save time.

It can improve productivity.

It can help people learn.

But it still requires judgement.

And perhaps that’s the skill that matters most.

Not simply using AI.

But understanding how to use it wisely.

Looking ahead, I suspect basic AI literacy will become increasingly important.

Not because everyone needs to become a programmer.

But because AI is becoming part of more tools, more workplaces, and more daily activities.

The people who understand how it works—and where its limitations are—will probably be better prepared for that future.

And honestly, that future seems closer than many people realise. Click here to learn the basic AI https://share.google/QdQ9H7TLJS9SnvuVp

Curious — what’s the most useful AI skill you’ve learned so far?

When People Say They Can Spot an AI-Written Book, What Are They Actually Seeing?

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Recently, I came across an interesting comment.

Someone claimed that books written using AI are easy to identify.

At first, I thought that was a bold statement.

After all, AI-generated writing has improved significantly over the last few years.

In some cases, it’s surprisingly good.

It can produce clear sentences, organise ideas, and even imitate different writing styles.

So that got me thinking.

When readers say they can tell a book was written by AI, what are they actually detecting?

Is it the technology? Or is it something else?

The more I thought about it, the more I started to wonder whether readers are really detecting AI at all.

Perhaps they’re detecting the absence of something human.

I thought about those books that stays with us long after we’ve finished reading them.

Often it’s not because the grammar was perfect.

Or because every sentence was beautifully structured. It’s because the story felt real.

The characters felt believable. The emotions felt genuine.

The writer seemed to understand something about people.

That’s difficult to measure.

And it’s even harder to automate.

As an author myself, I’ve noticed that many of the most memorable moments in writing don’t come from following a formula. They come from observation. A conversation you overheard. A mistake you made. A difficult experience. Moments that changed how you see the world.

Those things have a habit of finding their way into the page.

That’s why I think this discussion is bigger than AI.

Even before AI existed, readers often criticised books that felt generic, repetitive, or emotionally flat.

The complaint wasn’t:

“This feels written by AI.”

The complaint was:

“This doesn’t feel real.”

Perhaps that’s the question worth asking as AI becomes more involved in creative work.

The question is not whether AI can write.

Clearly it can.

The more interesting question is whether readers are looking for good writing alone.

Or whether they’re looking for evidence that another human being was behind it.

Because stories have always been more than words on a page.

They’re a way for people to share experiences, perspectives, and emotions with each other.

And maybe that’s why authenticity still matters.

Not because technology is incapable of producing sentences.

But because readers are often searching for something deeper than sentences.

They’re searching for a human connection.

Curious — if you picked up a novel and discovered it had been heavily written by AI, would it change how you felt about reading it?

What Is AI Anyway? And Why It Already Matters More Than We Think

We often talk about artificial intelligence as if it’s a single, clearly defined invention. A tool we can point to. A technology we can explain in one sentence.

But the reality is more complicated than that.

In a recent TED talk by Mustafa Suleyman, a simple but powerful idea is explored: artificial intelligence is already reshaping society faster than our ability to fully define what it actually is.

And that gap — between understanding what AI is and experiencing what it does — is where the most important changes are happening.

A Technology That Doesn’t Sit Still

Unlike traditional inventions, AI doesn’t exist in one fixed form.

It writes, recommends, analyses, predicts, generates, and increasingly assists in decision-making across industries.

But none of these roles fully captures it.

Instead, AI behaves more like a layer embedded across systems we already use every day — quietly influencing outcomes in the background.

That makes it both powerful and difficult to fully see.

Why This Isn’t Just a Tech Conversation

Even if you never “use AI” directly, you already interact with it constantly.

It shapes:

• what appears in your social media feeds
• what products you’re recommended
• what news stories are highlighted
• how books, videos, and articles are discovered

In other words, AI is increasingly involved in shaping attention itself.

And attention is the foundation of modern digital life.

What This Means for Writers and Creators

For authors, bloggers, and creatives, this shift is especially important.

AI now influences:

• how readers discover content
• how books are ranked and recommended
• how summaries and previews are generated
• how marketing content is created at scale
• and how competitive the publishing space has become

This doesn’t remove creativity.

But it does change the environment creativity lives in.

The challenge is no longer just producing meaningful work.

It’s ensuring that work can still be seen and understood in a fast-moving, algorithm-driven space.

The Bigger Question

A deeper question emerges from all of this:

If AI systems help filter and prioritise what we see every day, then who is really shaping attention?

Not in a dramatic sense — but in a structural one.

Because increasingly, we don’t choose everything we consume directly. It is curated, ranked, and suggested by systems designed to predict what we’ll engage with.

That subtly shifts how information flows through society.

Final Thought

We are not waiting for AI to arrive.

We are already living inside its early influence.

The challenge now is not just to use it, but to understand how it quietly reshapes what we read, create, and pay attention to.

🎥 Watch the TED talk here:

https://youtu.be/KKNCiRWd_j0?si=eXlmAEti1yX5vppF