Bojangles' AI takes orders at more than half its drive-thrus. Its customers are split.

Previously

In February 2025, Wendy's said its FreshAi order taker was in about 100 restaurants and would reach 500 to 600 that year. Its only published accuracy figure, 86% of orders without crew help, came from a four-restaurant pilot in 2023 (Part 1).

June 2026 — Two more chains are talking about their drive-thru voice AI on the record. Here's what changed since Part 1 (February 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of June 2026)

Bojangles' reach: Bo-Linda at 450 of 880 restaurants, "more than half," per Axios Charlotte. (Axios Charlotte)
Bojangles' success rate: Bojangles believes Bo-Linda is "98.5%-99% successful, meaning employees are only interjecting 1 out of 100 times," Axios Charlotte reported. (Axios Charlotte)
White Castle: Julia at about 40 locations; accuracy "well above the 90 per cent range," CMO Jamie Richardson told CBC News. (CBC News)
System cost: not disclosed by either chain.

Bojangles: "never cost anyone a job"

Bo-Linda debuted at a Bojangles on South Tryon Street in Charlotte in 2023 and takes orders in English and Spanish, Axios Charlotte reported. It is built by Israel-based Hi Auto, which announced in July 2024 that it would expand it from roughly 50 Bojangles restaurants to hundreds, Restaurant Dive reported. Del Valle said it frees up about a third of workers' tasks and that "Bo-Linda's never cost anyone a job." He said some franchise partners "believe strongly in human interaction," and added: "We've detected no aggressiveness in Bo-Linda to date."

Customers were mixed. Anthony Ballard told Axios Charlotte: "The AI voice, while functional, didn't offer that same feeling." Mary-Catherine Berger called it "predatory" and "deeply, frustratingly impersonal." Doug Duncan of Concord praised it. When the reporter tried it, her order failed and a human stepped in.

White Castle: "well above the 90 per cent range"

White Castle built Julia with SoundHound. If there's a problem, an employee takes over, CBC News reported. Richardson said: "It's well above the 90 per cent range. We found that ordering with Julia is better order accuracy than we experienced prior to Julia." On staffing, he said: "We haven't used it as a way to reduce employment. We've used it as a way to be, hopefully, more productive."

At a Detroit restaurant, store manager Denise Harley said: "At first we had a few hiccups, but we straightened them all out and it's been doing good… It just helps us get the orders in and out faster." Customer Kim Gilmer said: "I think they got our order correct and everything. I just hate that this is what the world is coming to. That just means less jobs for humans."

Ben Bellettini, SoundHound's senior vice-president of sales, said: "We come in with better accuracy, more timely greeting and acceptance to really help the whole operation run smoother." In August 2023, SoundHound said its White Castle pilot reached "90% order completion rates," averaged just over 60 seconds per order, and was planned for 100+ drive-thru lanes by the end of 2024.

What's changed

In February 2025, Wendy's was the large-chain test case, with about 100 restaurants. By June 2026, Bojangles had voice AI in more than half its system and White Castle in about 40 locations. Both now quote accuracy figures of 90% or higher. Bojangles counts an order as a success when no employee has to interject, which by its own figure happens about 99 times in 100, Axios Charlotte reported. We found no White Castle explanation of how it counts. Wendy's own figures showed why that matters: its 86% excluded orders a crew member touched, while the "nearly 99%" Restaurant Dive reported from the same pilot included them.

What went wrong

Self-reported accuracy. Both figures come from the chains' own executives, with no published method.
Live failures. Axios Charlotte's reporter saw an order fail; White Castle's manager described early "hiccups."
Customer pushback. Customers at both chains raised the human touch and jobs.
What we don't know yet: what each system costs, how often staff step in at each chain, and whether order times changed.

Our follow-up question for Bojangles and White Castle

How does White Castle define a "successful" AI order, and has anyone outside Bojangles checked its 1-in-100 intervention rate?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

Franchise Update reported on Sept. 20, 2026 that Bo-Linda was in 452 of Bojangles' 800-plus restaurants, 280 of them company-owned, and that Del Valle said humans step in on 1% to 2% of orders. (Franchise Update)
On Oct. 22, 2026, Hi Auto and Bojangles announced a multi-year extension. The release says Bo-Linda is at "nearly 500" locations handling "more than one million orders per week at a 98% success rate," with about 100 more planned by mid-2027. Bojangles' own Bo-Linda page cites "96+%" and "450+." These are company figures. (Business Wire; Bojangles)

Sources

Alexandria Sands, Axios Charlotte, “The South has a love-hate relationship with Bojangles' AI robot,” June 7, 2026. axios.com
Nisha Patel, CBC News, “Do you want AI with that? Chatbots could take your next order at the drive-thru,” June 23, 2026. cbc.ca
SoundHound, “SoundHound and White Castle commit to expand successful drive-thru AI partnership,” Aug. 2, 2023. soundhound.com
Colleen McMillar, Franchise Update, “Operational Intelligence: AI Takes Orders, Coaches Employees, and Helps Franchisees Operate Smarter,” Sept. 20, 2026. franchising.com
Hi Auto and Bojangles, “Hi Auto and Bojangles Announce Multi-Year Extension of Bo-Linda AI Drive-Thru Partnership,” Business Wire, Oct. 22, 2026. businesswire.com
Bojangles, “Bo-Linda,” accessed Oct. 25, 2026. bojangles.com
Aneurin Canham-Clyne, Restaurant Dive, “Bojangles to deploy voice AI at hundreds of drive-thrus,” July 23, 2024. restaurantdive.com
Earlier in this series: Part 1. /case/drive-thru-voice-ai-wendys
Archimedes Tech SPAC Partners Co. (now SoundHound AI), Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1, Nov. 16, 2021. sec.gov
SoundHound AI, Form 8-K, exhibit 99.1 (Q1 2025 results), May 8, 2025. sec.gov
SoundHound AI, proxy statement (DEF 14A), Apr. 9, 2026. sec.gov

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