It’s 12:30 p.m. at a bustling QSR location. Orders come in thick and fast, employees shuffle between stations, and guests expect precision and speed. Historically, this was a point of stress for staff, where missed upsells or mistakes could ripple across the entire lunch rush. Now, an AI voice greets every customer with consistency, upsells without hesitation, and keeps the line moving. That AI is Hi Auto’s Order Taker, which has now surpassed 100 million drive-thru orders annually.

Across nearly 1,000 locations, the system achieves 93% order completion and 96% accuracy, demonstrating that voice AI is operational rather than experimental.

Reliability Under Pressure

Drive-thrus are challenging environments for humans and machines alike. Background noise, accents, and overlapping orders test speed and precision. Hi Auto designed its AI specifically for this high-volume, high-pressure channel, and its deployment across the U.S., U.K., Australia, and New Zealand shows it can scale globally while maintaining reliability.

“It’s exciting to ramp up the number of restaurants using our AI Order Taker, but that metric represents true success when these transactions provide real value for our QSR customers and their guests,” says Roy Baharav, co-founder and CEO of Hi Auto. “What we view as the real achievement here is how Voice AI is improving efficiencies and employee satisfaction while boosting revenue and delivering outstanding guest experiences at almost a thousand drive-thru locations.”

Transforming Staff Experience

At many locations, the AI has had an immediate effect on employee workload and morale. “Before Hi Auto, we used to have stress trying to run to the front and answer the speaker for the guests and ring up orders and stuff,” explains Linda Ronda, a Checkers store general manager. “But now we can do other things and be able to still pay 100% attention to the guests at the window.”

Neil Pathak, a Bojangles franchise owner, adds, “From day one, the biggest thing I noticed with having Bolinda was that the crew members felt a sense of relief. The person that used to do cash, take orders, make drinks… they're just so relaxed now compared to before.”

And the effect extends to guest interactions. “You always get a nice friendly voice with Hi Auto, versus if you have a [human] order taker, they could be grumpy or in a bad mood, and then that gets conveyed to your guests,” says Jason Amell, an executive with Michigan’s largest Checkers & Rally’s franchisee business. “Hi Auto eliminates that.”

Revenue Through Consistency

Upselling is one area where Hi Auto demonstrates tangible business value. Human employees can vary day-to-day, but the AI consistently executes promotions and add-ons. “You can set [Bojangles’ custom-branded Voice AI] BoLinda to suggest to sell by day part, by promotion, etc.,” says Bojangles CEO Jose Armario. “She’s very consistent and very reliable.”

Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken, quantifies the impact: “You might get an upsell 20% of the time with humans in the drive-thru. With Hi Auto, our voice AI order-taking partner, we’re getting it 100% of the time.”

Rally’s franchise owner Mike Rosania adds, “One of my favorite things about Hi Auto is it actually upsells better than my employees can. And I really thought my employees were top-notch upsellers. Hi Auto just knocks it out the park every day, every shift, day in and day out.”

Scaling AI Across Continents

Founded in 2019, Hi Auto combines centralized control of voice, scripts, and upsells with flexibility for franchisees to adjust menus, promotions, and regional variations. Its AI platform can save three to eight labor hours per store per day, enabling staff to focus on food quality and guest interactions.

With 100 million drive-thru orders processed annually, Hi Auto shows that voice AI is no longer an experimental novelty. For the QSR industry, this milestone demonstrates that automation can deliver consistent sales execution, reduce stress, and deliver reliable guest experiences, turning the drive-thru from a source of operational strain into a finely tuned, AI-powered channel.