Chick-fil-A CEO Says Drive-Thru Ordering Will Stay Human, Not AI

Chick-fil-A is leaving a prominent restaurant AI application off its agenda: taking customers’ drive-thru orders. In a CNBC interview published October 4, 2026, CEO Andrew Cathy said the chain is not pursuing AI voice ordering. It is exploring AI behind the scenes, but he wants the interaction with diners to remain human.

AI voice ordering lets software take a spoken order in place of an employee. Cathy described Chick-fil-A’s approach to restaurant technology as “human plus.” His reason for keeping people in that exchange is hospitality—the warm environment he wants employees to create for customers.

Rivals put AI in the ordering lane

McDonald’s is pursuing the customer-facing application Cathy is declining. At its September investor day, the company said it planned to test Archy, its voice AI technology, to take orders in English and Spanish. Wendy’s has already rolled out its AI drive-thru ordering assistant, FreshAI, according to Gray News. Those competitors are at different stages: a planned test at McDonald’s and a rollout at Wendy’s.

A service reputation worth protecting

Cathy’s emphasis on hospitality sits alongside a long record of customer satisfaction. Chick-fil-A led fast food in the annual American Customer Satisfaction Index for more than a decade, CNBC reported. Jersey Mike’s overtook it in the 2026 study, although Chick-fil-A’s own score stayed unchanged from the previous year.

The preference for human service also appears in a SurveyMonkey survey covered by Forbes and cited by Gray News: 79% of respondents preferred interacting with a human over automated customer service. That finding concerns customer service generally, not a direct comparison of Chick-fil-A employees with an AI drive-thru assistant.