Congrats to America’s fast-food chains. Those annoying A.I. bots you added to the drive-thru are really crushing it . . .
Intouch Insight released its annual “Drive-Thru Study.” And despite A.I.’s “help,” America’s drive-thrus got a little SLOWER this year. The average is now 5 minutes 35 seconds. That’s up nine seconds from last year’s 5:26. (They added a few restaurants though. If you just look at last year’s, the average was three seconds quicker than 2024. Thanks, A.I.?)
Of the fast-food places they looked at, Taco Bell was the fastest at 4:16. (Makes sense, they’ve got six total ingredients.) KFC is next at 4:21, Tim Hortons, 4:25, and Arby’s, 4:32.
Chick-fil-A had the slowest drive-thru at 7 minutes 6 seconds, but only because of longer lines. They actually rank first if you look at total number of cars in line. They also ranked first in friendliness and overall satisfaction.
Not counting coffee chains, Burger King and Wendy’s ranked first in accuracy, getting 88% of their orders right. (Impressive?) The overall average was 87%. The most common complaints were, “I said no ice” and receiving the wrong item.
Drive-thrus with A.I. only got 83% of orders right. People also had to repeat their order about a third of the time.
