For decades, the drive-thru has been the beating heart of fast-food operations: fast, chaotic, and essential to revenue. But as labor shortages persist and customer expectations rise, the industry is quietly undergoing one of its biggest shifts in years. Voice AI, once treated as a novelty, is becoming a core operational layer. The clearest proof arrived this week from Hi Auto, which announced that its AI Order Taker now completes more than 100 million drive-thru orders per year across nearly 1,000 restaurants.
A New Benchmark for Voice AI
Hi Auto’s system has been trained specifically for the drive-thru environment, where engines, wind, and background noise have historically made speech-based tools unreliable. Its numbers are notable: 93% order completion and 96% accuracy. These figures have positioned the company as the most widely deployed AI ordering platform in the QSR sector.
But for Hi Auto, scale alone is not the story. “It’s exciting to ramp up the number of restaurants using our AI Order Taker, but that metric represents true success when these transactions provide real value for our QSR customers and their guests,” says Roy Baharav, Co-Founder and CEO of Hi Auto. “What we view as the real achievement here is how Voice AI is improving efficiencies and employee satisfaction while boosting revenue and delivering outstanding guest experiences at almost a thousand drive-thru locations.”
The company’s footprint now spans the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, and Australia, making it the first drive-thru-focused voice AI deployed across three continents.
Operational Relief for Frontline Teams
For many operators, the most immediate effect of adopting Hi Auto is a reduction in employee stress, as employees no longer have to juggle taking orders, accepting payments, assembling items, and managing the window. One Checkers general manager, Linda Ronda, recalls the difference clearly: “Before Hi Auto, we used to have stress trying to run to the front and answer the speaker for the guests and ring up orders and stuff. But now we can do other things and be able to still pay 100% attention to the guests at the window.”
Bojangles franchisees report similar experiences. “You could see immediately the day we put Bolinda in our restaurants: we would see those stress levels come down and we would see the guest experience get better,” says CEO Jose Armario. Franchise owner Neil Pathak, who oversees 30 stores, adds, “From day one, the biggest thing I noticed with having Bolinda was that the crew members felt a sense of relief. The person that used to do cash, take orders, make drinks… they’re just so relaxed now compared to before.”
Hi Auto’s centralized system allows brands to adjust scripts, limited-time offers, and upselling prompts across all stores while preserving regional nuance. This standardization, paired with automation, saves stores between three and eight labor hours per day, often the difference between keeping a shift fully staffed and scrambling to fill roles.
Upselling Becomes a Guaranteed Part of the System
The impact of upselling has been one of the strongest signals of the technology’s maturity. “You might get an upsell 20% of the time with humans in the drive-thru,” says Ryan Weaver, CEO of Lee’s Famous Recipe Chicken. “With Hi Auto, our voice AI order-taking partner, we’re getting it 100% of the time.”
Rally’s franchise owner Mike Rosania shares the same sentiment: “One of my favorite things about Hi Auto is it actually upsells better than my employees can. And I really thought my employees were top-notch upsellers. Hi Auto just knocks it out the park every day, every shift, day in and day out.”
General manager Alisha Burton adds that, with the system, “You will never miss a beat on the upselling, being the friendliest, and giving the customer the best service over the speaker.”
And as Rally’s executive Jason Amell notes, consistency matters: “You always get a nice friendly voice with Hi Auto, versus if you have a [human] order taker, they could be grumpy or in a bad mood, and then that gets conveyed to your guests. Hi Auto eliminates that.”
AI That’s No Longer an Experiment
Founded in 2019, Hi Auto has positioned itself as a stability layer for high-volume drive-thrus, a system that not only automates tasks but also improves accuracy, morale, and the guest experience. Its 100 million–order milestone is more than a headline number; it signals that AI-based order taking is no longer experimental. It is operational, dependable, and reshaping the fast-food frontline.
