BusinessFriday, April 17, 2026· 2 min read

Dairy Queen Rolls Out AI Chatbots in Drive-Thrus to Speed Service and Boost Orders

Source: The Verge AI

TL;DR

Dairy Queen is deploying Presto’s AI-powered chatbot across dozens of drive-thrus in the US and Canada to speed up service and encourage larger orders. The move builds on successful tests and leverages human oversight to deliver faster, more consistent customer experiences.

Key Takeaways

  • 1Dairy Queen is launching Presto’s AI voice chatbot at dozens of drive-thru locations across the US and Canada.
  • 2The AI aims to speed service, reduce wait times, and encourage customers to add items to their orders.
  • 3Presto already partners with several fast-food chains, so this is a practical, scaled deployment rather than an experimental demo.
  • 4Human-in-the-loop oversight has been used in past deployments, helping ensure accuracy and quality as the system scales.

Dairy Queen brings AI to the drive-thru

Dairy Queen is rolling out an AI-powered chatbot built by Presto to dozens of drive-thru locations across the US and Canada. The system listens and responds to customer orders with natural language, aiming to speed up service, reduce errors, and provide a consistent ordering experience during busy shifts.

Presto’s voice AI has already been tested with Dairy Queen and is in use at other chains, so this launch reflects a practical, production-ready step rather than a one-off experiment. That background helped Dairy Queen move from testing into a wider rollout quickly, bringing the tech to more customers and staff on the ground.

Benefits include faster throughput, fewer order mistakes, and a more uniform customer experience — plus an upsell-friendly approach that can increase order value. Importantly, deployments like these have used human-in-the-loop support to verify and correct the system as needed, helping the AI learn and ensuring reliability for real-world service.

As quick-service restaurants adopt AI tools, customers can expect shorter waits and smoother transactions, while teams get support handling peak demand. This deployment is a practical example of AI improving everyday convenience and operational efficiency across a large, familiar brand.

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