Dive Brief:
- Taco Bell has expanded its partnership with artificial intelligence company Omilia to continue scaling its drive-thru voice AI across Taco Bell’s U.S. system, according to a press release.
- The two companies originally partnered in 2023 and have since brought the technology to over 890 U.S. units across 38 states.
- Parent company Yum has leaned heavily into technology across its brands, launching Byte, a proprietary software-as-a-service platform that includes artificial intelligence, last year.
Dive Insight:
Taco Bell’s rollout of various drive-thru technologies hasn’t been entirely smooth. In March 2025, Yum partnered with Nvidia to create a drive-thru voice AI that used Yum’s tools and Nvidia frameworks. It was then deployed to about 500 restaurants. But 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.
The chain’s partnership with Omilia suggests that Yum prefers to use an outside provider to offer this technology across Taco Bell’s system. Omilia said its 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.
“The solution interprets and reasons on customer input, including slang, humor, mid-order changes, and complex customizations, and converses naturally, without latency, and without scripted menus or hallucinations,” the company said.
The press release claimed that Taco Bell restaurants that use this technology have had higher employee retention because team members can focus on hospitality instead of order taking.
“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.
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.
