Taco Bell Deploys AI Drive-Through at 500+ Locations. One TikTok Shows It Adding 18,000 Water Cups to an Order. CEO Says 'We Are Rethinking This'.
Taco Bell rolled out Voice AI drive-through at 500+ US locations through 2024. By August 2025, TikToks of the bot going haywire were hitting 100M+ views: one teen ordered 18,000 water cups and the bot cheerfully complied ('Anything else?'); it repeatedly added bacon to ice cream (see also: McDonald's); it accepted an order in three languages simultaneously then confessed 'I don't know what to do'. In July 2025, Taco Bell CEO Lawrence Kim told The Wall Street Journal the company is 'learning where AI does and doesn't work, and rethinking' the voice AI rollout. The 18,000 cups TikTok is now a business school case study.
Taco Bell rolled out Voice AI drive-through at 500+ US locations through 2024. By August 2025, TikToks of the bot going haywire were hitting 100M+ views: one teen ordered 18,000 water cups and the bot cheerfully complied ('Anything else?'); it repeatedly added bacon to ice cream (see also: McDonald's); it accepted an order in three languages simultaneously then confessed 'I don't know what to do'. In July 2025, Taco Bell CEO Lawrence Kim told The Wall Street Journal the company is 'learning where AI does and doesn't work, and rethinking' the voice AI rollout. The 18,000 cups TikTok is now a business school case study.
Weirdness Classification
9/10 — Deeply unhinged
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