Yum! Brands executive pushes back against AI hate: Taco Bell drive-thru bot has helped increase employee retention by making jobs easier
“I'm seeing all the data center noise and all the things that people worry about with AI, and there's that constant tension,” Yum! Brands Chief Legal Officer Erika Burkhardt said.
At the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit, Yum! Brands CLO Erika Burkhardt expressed her mixed feelings on AI's impact on the company. While she acknowledged the dissonance between public opposition to AI and its benefits for workers, she highlighted the positive outcomes of AI implementation in Taco Bell's drive-thru ordering process.
Burkhardt stated that AI has increased employee retention by simplifying their jobs and reducing tension points in the ordering process. Despite an extreme case of a customer ordering 18,000 water cups from a Taco Bell drive-thru, the fast-food chain has seen success with AI automation. In July, Taco Bell expanded Omilia Voice AI usage to nearly 900 locations.
Burkhardt emphasized that AI is still a learning process, but it ultimately makes the company better. DoorDash CCO Elizabeth Jarvis-Shean shared that the company has successfully integrated AI by having it deeply embedded in its workflow, making its use routine rather than a debated topic. Dash Buddy, a tool for new Dashers, can provide real-time answers to about 95% of questions in real time.
The push for AI integration is part of a broader trend of corporations finding use cases for the technology to increase workflow efficiency. Arm's CMO Ami Badani has already noticed a positive impact on the speed of releasing corporate communications and responding to industry announcements.
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