The next time you pull into a McDonald’s drive-thru, the voice greeting you might not be human. And while you wait, there is a World Cup-themed dessert worth adding to your order.
McDonald’s is making two kinds of news at once this week, with a major AI test underway at select locations and a limited-time McFlurry drawing early praise.
McDonald’s is testing an AI voice at the drive-thru
McDonald’s is piloting a new AI ordering system called ArchIQ at five U.S. locations. The voice assistant, nicknamed Archy, handles drive-thru orders in both English and Spanish. An anonymous McDonald’s franchisee account on social media reported the system has already processed more than 1 million transactions, with roughly 90% of orders completed without any human intervention.
For a company that tried AI ordering before and stumbled publicly, that number matters. McDonald’s ran a similar program with IBM across more than 100 restaurants before ending it in 2024, after complaints about order accuracy spread widely online. The new effort runs on Google technology, and reports suggest Google Edge Cloud hardware is already being installed at McDonald’s locations nationwide ahead of a potential broader rollout.
Beyond taking orders, Archy can flag slowdowns and alert managers to operational problems before they grow. McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski has described the broader initiative as a push to increase customer traffic and improve restaurant efficiency through technology, menu changes and redesigned locations.
No nationwide launch date has been confirmed, and McDonald’s has not disclosed where the five test locations are. Questions about how customer voice data is collected and stored have not been publicly addressed.
The Golden McFlurry is worth your attention
If you happen to be near a McDonald’s this week, the new Golden McFlurry makes a reasonable case for a detour. The limited-time dessert, released in connection with the World Cup, blends McDonald’s soft serve with ribbons of golden caramel and a crunchy caramelized coconut topping.
The caramel flavor is rich without tipping into sweetness, landing somewhere close to dulce de leche territory, and it pairs well with the vanilla base. The caramelized coconut topping delivers satisfying crunch, though the portion is not quite generous enough. The crunchy pieces thin out faster than you would like, leaving behind the occasional chewy bite.
Those are minor complaints for a dessert that sits noticeably above the average McFlurry. It is a limited-time item, so it will not be around indefinitely.