Andrew Cathy, the CEO of Chick-fil-A, claims that his company has no current plans to begin utilizing artificial intelligence to take orders in its restaurants’ drive-thru lanes.
Cathy, speaking with CNBC, said he prefers to keep providing customers with a more “human” touch.
“From our experience, we really want that hospitality to be human to human,” Cathy told the outlet. “We’re not gonna substitute that interaction with technology, because we feel like that hospitality is so important to create that warm environment for consumers.”
Cathy acknowledged, however, that the company may “evolve and change” based on customer behavior and preferences. CNBC also reported that Chick-fil-A was indeed looking at ways to use AI “behind the scenes.”
When contacted, a representative for Chick-fil-A did not say whether Cathy’s remarks should be taken as a promise that the company would forever refrain from AI-assisted ordering, or if Chick-fil-A could change its plans in the future. Chick-fil-A’s representative instead directed Nexstar back to Cathy’s comments to CNBC.
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Cathy’s remarks come as a growing number of fast-food outlets pursue AI-assisted ordering, including Wendy’s, Dairy Queen and Taco Bell, the last of which became the focus of scrutiny in 2025 after customers shared their frustration with aspects of the technology. McDonald’s, too, is also preparing to expand its AI-ordering system — known as “Archy” — to thousands of restaurants in the coming years.
Current AI ordering platforms, though, are not quite perfect. A small study from Intouch Insight found that while the technology is improving, customers who ordered through “voice AI” at drive-thrus were provided with the correct order 90.8% of the time, meaning one in every 11 (or so) orders was incorrect. It’s worth noting that the same study found that the accuracy of all orders — placed with a human or AI — was only has high as 91.3% during “friendly” interactions, and “73.2% when service was not friendly.”
Drive-thru innovations aside, Chick-fil-A CEO Andrew Cathy said the company is excited to use other technologies to assist customers in the future, pointing to possible “drone delivery” as one area of interest.
“[I]t’s a fun time in the industry, to think about all the possibilities of what we can do to make a better experience for our guests,” he said.
