The strangest thing is happening at my drive through, the voice sounds to be of an older woman and when I get to the window, there aren't any woman working in the restaurant.
There are many non native worker in this restaurant with a distinctive accent but this "old woman" has a local accent.
It's not an ai voice so my guess is that she's somewhere else (at home?) and only handling the drive trough requests.
Companies are trying. The Wendy's by me has an "AI" ordering process in the drive through. Consequently, I don't go to Wendy's any more because I hate talking to the clanker. But I imagine a lot of people just do it.
The rest of your comment suggests tney have yet to fully succeed.
McDonalds tried for 3 years. They found that roughly one in five orders required human intervention. AI created bigger problems than it solved --- like driving away customers.
Now at first brush, while I don't think that AI could replace fast food workers, McDonald's obviously also went Hard Mode when they partnered with IBM to provide the AI.
The pivotal displacement I believe is going to come for all of the call centers, India has several major cities, and there are others in the US and elsewhere that could be seeing millions that no longer have a job in customer service and IT support - that had been keeping them working, and 1 or 2 other people in their local economy.
Many of the workers in call center IT, sales or customer support I do not think will find a lateral move in any workplace - which will put pressure on the no skill job market like uber and similar, which is already being displaced by waymo for rides and the 200 new delivery robots deployed in LA (and already taking jobs in Chicago)
Finance support jobs in NC, call people in Arizona and Vegas and others will be hit hard.
I have a bunch docs I may turn into a movie on this soon.
AI customer service is already better than many of the call center employees and depending on needs may replace a worker for under $100 / month, right now.
Only thing keeping these places afloat is contracts already in place, and that it may take a few months to ramp up the knowledge bases.
As far as fast food goes; Bojangles a block from me has AI voice bot that handles orders, questions, substitutions, different accents.. I tried to trip it up - and its better than most humans I have at the speaker box.
The inside kiosks at McDs started replacing humans long ago, if they took cash they would be better than humans today.
Replacing humans with cooking or cleaning? There are so many poor people in the US that it will likely just be cheaper to have humans doing that sort of thing.
Other commercial cleaning will likely replace 2 of 3 (or 1 of 3 if they are using child / other limited labor) workers with floor bots not too long from now.
When robots are skilled enough to clean chickens is when I worry about the impending desperation around my local in the US.
Yeah. We know.
The first step toward AI displacing workers needs to be at menial, low level jobs --- think a McDonalds drive thru or similar.
If AI is too dumb to displace fast food workers, it probably can't displace you either.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moravec%27s_paradox
Imagine if we replaced MBAs with LLMs; how quick would there suddenly be a middle management backlash.
- Sycophantic CHECK
- Stock phrases CHECK
- Repackaged "wisdom" CHECK
- Expensive without being valuable CHECK
- Verbose without much actual substance CHECK
- No real accountability or consequences for bad decisions/ information CHECK
Sounds as if MBAs and LLMs are already mostly interchangeable...
We still don't have AI robots that can reliably (and more cheaply) assemble a burger at McDonalds.
Have you not been to a drive through lately? Plenty of ‘computer’ help with the ordering experience.
I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.
The strangest thing is happening at my drive through, the voice sounds to be of an older woman and when I get to the window, there aren't any woman working in the restaurant.
There are many non native worker in this restaurant with a distinctive accent but this "old woman" has a local accent.
It's not an ai voice so my guess is that she's somewhere else (at home?) and only handling the drive trough requests.
So the obvious conclusion is --- an old woman operating from a remote location is more effective than AI.
I’m sure most fast food places would love to operate sans employees.
You're validating my point.
I went through a drive through today. No AI in sight.
If AI is ready, willing and capable of doing the job, why isn't it?
It's not for lack of desire or effort.
https://wonderfulengineering.com/taco-bell-is-rethinking-its...
https://t2conline.com/ai-at-the-drive-through-would-you-like...
Companies are trying. The Wendy's by me has an "AI" ordering process in the drive through. Consequently, I don't go to Wendy's any more because I hate talking to the clanker. But I imagine a lot of people just do it.
Companies are trying.
The rest of your comment suggests tney have yet to fully succeed.
McDonalds tried for 3 years. They found that roughly one in five orders required human intervention. AI created bigger problems than it solved --- like driving away customers.
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/mcdonalds-spent-3-years-ai-dr...
Now at first brush, while I don't think that AI could replace fast food workers, McDonald's obviously also went Hard Mode when they partnered with IBM to provide the AI.
Taco Bell had similar results.
https://www.cnet.com/tech/services-and-software/after-2-mill...
The pivotal displacement I believe is going to come for all of the call centers, India has several major cities, and there are others in the US and elsewhere that could be seeing millions that no longer have a job in customer service and IT support - that had been keeping them working, and 1 or 2 other people in their local economy.
Many of the workers in call center IT, sales or customer support I do not think will find a lateral move in any workplace - which will put pressure on the no skill job market like uber and similar, which is already being displaced by waymo for rides and the 200 new delivery robots deployed in LA (and already taking jobs in Chicago)
Finance support jobs in NC, call people in Arizona and Vegas and others will be hit hard.
I have a bunch docs I may turn into a movie on this soon.
AI customer service is already better than many of the call center employees and depending on needs may replace a worker for under $100 / month, right now.
Only thing keeping these places afloat is contracts already in place, and that it may take a few months to ramp up the knowledge bases.
As far as fast food goes; Bojangles a block from me has AI voice bot that handles orders, questions, substitutions, different accents.. I tried to trip it up - and its better than most humans I have at the speaker box.
The inside kiosks at McDs started replacing humans long ago, if they took cash they would be better than humans today.
Replacing humans with cooking or cleaning? There are so many poor people in the US that it will likely just be cheaper to have humans doing that sort of thing.
Other commercial cleaning will likely replace 2 of 3 (or 1 of 3 if they are using child / other limited labor) workers with floor bots not too long from now.
When robots are skilled enough to clean chickens is when I worry about the impending desperation around my local in the US.