Wendy's plans to put its drive-thru AI in hundreds more restaurants. Its accuracy figure comes from a 2023 pilot.

February 2025 — Wendy's says its FreshAi drive-thru ordering system, built with Google Cloud, is ready to scale. Here's what it has deployed, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of February 2025)

Deployment: nearly 100 restaurants, CEO Kirk Tanner said, with plans for 500 to 600 by the end of 2025. (Nation's Restaurant News; Business Insider)
Accuracy: 86% of orders handled without crew intervention, averaged during a pilot, per Wendy's Dec. 11, 2023 post, which said FreshAi was then active in four company restaurants in Columbus, Ohio. (Wendy's)
Capex: $100 million to $110 million planned for 2025, per Wendy's results release; no FreshAi line item. (Wendy's)
System cost and post-pilot accuracy: not disclosed.

What Wendy's said

In prepared remarks, Tanner said Wendy's had deployed voice-AI order taking at nearly 100 locations. "We are pleased with the results we are seeing in improving accuracy and driving labor efficiency," he said, per Nation's Restaurant News. According to The Motley Fool's transcript, he credited Wendy's execution across its app, digital menu boards and voice-AI ordering with an 80-basis-point improvement in global company-operated restaurant margin. Wendy's results release puts full-year U.S. company-operated margin at 16.0%, up from 15.3%. Wendy's gave no figure for FreshAi alone.

Asked about speed of service and check lift by TD Cowen's Andrew Charles, per The Motley Fool's transcript, Tanner did not give numbers. He said the system was in over 100 restaurants and would reach 500 to 600 that year. "What I would tell you is it drives sales as well," he said, according to Nation's Restaurant News. "It understands what to ask for, and the accuracy definitely is improving."

He described the 500-store stage as a test. If it goes well, it could be "a real strong proof point" for adding voice AI across Wendy's restaurants, Business Insider reported.

Where the 86% comes from

The 86% figure isn't from the call. Wendy's published it on Dec. 11, 2023, in a post on a pilot that began in May 2023, according to Restaurant Dive. "Our accuracy during the pilot, measured as the percentage of orders successfully handled by Wendy's FreshAi without restaurant team member intervention, averaged 86% and we would expect the average to only to [sic] increase," wrote Matt Spessard, whom Restaurant Dive identified that day as Wendy's SVP and Global Chief Technology Officer. At the time, FreshAi was in four company restaurants in Columbus, and franchisees were to be offered pilots in 2024. The post said Wendy's was "resisting the urge to deploy widely and too quickly."

Restaurant Dive reported that day that one test restaurant ran 22 seconds faster than the Columbus market average, and that Wendy's put its success rate at "nearly 99%" when orders where a crew member joined in were counted. Restaurant Dive also noted that Presto, a rival vendor, had said in a securities filing that about 70% of its orders needed human help. Presto's November 2023 filing said "over 70% of orders taken by our Presto Voice solution require human agent intervention," Business Insider reported (Business Insider), and a January 2025 SEC order found its newer version needed a human to enter orders about 70% of the time from June to December 2023 (SEC). Restaurant Dive's "nearly 99%" and Wendy's 86% measure different things: the higher figure counts any order the chatbot started and sent to the register, even if a person had to fix it.

What's changed

In December 2023, FreshAi was in four Columbus restaurants. By February 2025, Wendy's said it was in about 100 and would be in 500 to 600 by the end of the year. Wendy's hasn't published an accuracy figure for the larger footprint, and it now calls the next 500 restaurants the "proof point."

What went wrong

Old number, new scale. The only published accuracy figure covers four restaurants in one market, measured in 2023.
No speed or check data. Tanner was asked about both and gave neither.
Bundled margin gains. The 80-basis-point margin improvement covers several initiatives at once.
What we don't know yet: FreshAi's current intervention rate, its cost per restaurant, and how franchise restaurants compare with company ones.

Our follow-up question for Wendy's

What share of FreshAi orders now go through without a crew member stepping in, across all the restaurants that have it?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

On May 2, 2025, Restaurant Dive reported that FreshAi was in over 160 restaurants, per CFO Ken Cook, and that Tanner said Wendy's was on track for over 500 by year end. (Restaurant Dive)
On Wendy's fourth-quarter 2025 call on Feb. 13, 2026, Suzanne M. Thuerk, Chief Accounting Officer and Global Head of FP&A, cited benefits from the continued rollout of digital menu boards and FreshAi automated ordering, per The Motley Fool's transcript. We found no second account of the remark. She gave no restaurant count. We found no later store count from Wendy's. (The Motley Fool)

Sources

The Motley Fool, “Wendy's (WEN) Q4 2024 Earnings Call Transcript,” Feb. 13, 2025. fool.com
Matt Spessard, Wendy's, “Leading Drive-Thru Innovation with Wendy's FreshAi,” Dec. 11, 2023. wendys.com
Julie Littman, Restaurant Dive, “Wendy's franchisees can pilot drive-thru AI in 2024,” Dec. 11, 2023. restaurantdive.com
Julie Littman, Restaurant Dive, “Wendy's to deploy drive-thru AI to over 500 restaurants this year,” May 2, 2025. restaurantdive.com
The Motley Fool, “Wendy's (WEN) Q4 2025 Earnings Call Transcript,” Feb. 13, 2026. fool.com
Ron Ruggless, Nation's Restaurant News, “Wendy’s sees first-quarter trough in consumer spending,” Feb. 13, 2025. nrn.com
Alex Bitter, Business Insider, “Wendy's is expanding AI ordering to hundreds more drive-thrus in 2025,” Feb. 13, 2025. businessinsider.com
The Wendy's Company, “THE WENDY'S COMPANY REPORTS FOURTH QUARTER AND FULL-YEAR 2024 RESULTS, PROVIDES 2025 OUTLOOK, AND UPDATES ITS CAPITAL ALLOCATION POLICY,” Feb. 13, 2025. irwendys.com
Business Insider, “AI Drive-Thru Tech Firm Relies on Human Workers 70% of the Time,” December 2023. businessinsider.com
U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, order instituting cease-and-desist proceedings, In the Matter of Presto Automation Inc., Release No. 33-11352, Jan. 14, 2025. sec.gov

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