Michael Chorey, the founder and chief inventor of Wendy’s FreshAI, has made a significant career move by departing the burger chain to join Presto as cofounder and president of its new division, Presto IQ. This transition marks a pivotal moment in the fast-food industry’s embrace of artificial intelligence technology.
During his three years developing FreshAI at Wendy’s, Chorey built an AI-powered voice ordering system that he claims can take customer orders faster and more efficiently than human workers. By the time of his departure in early August, Wendy’s had implemented the technology at 300 drive-thru locations and planned to expand to 600 sites by year’s end. The system, created in collaboration with Google Cloud, was first tested in 2023 and represents one of the most extensive AI rollouts in the fast-food sector.
Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner has been a vocal supporter of the technology, telling investors in February that FreshAI “gives customers the opportunity to build their orders.” Despite early concerns about accuracy and ease of use, Tanner personally tests the system multiple times weekly and reports that “the accuracy definitely is improving.”
The fast-food industry is experiencing an AI ordering race, with major chains competing to implement voice automation. McDonald’s initially tested an IBM-powered AI system in 2021 but rolled it back in 2024 after viral videos exposed flaws. The chain has since partnered with Google to explore new AI integration strategies. Yum Brands, parent company of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, announced plans to expand AI-powered drive-thru assistants to hundreds of Taco Bell locations.
Presto’s technology is already being tested at Carl’s Jr., Hardee’s, Wienerschnitzel, and Yoshinoya. Chorey’s role at Presto involves adapting the AI platform to work seamlessly across different brands, recognizing that customer interactions vary by time of day and brand identity.
Krishna Gupta, Presto’s cofounder and co-CEO, made a bold prediction: within three years, there will be no human operators taking orders at drive-thrus. However, he frames this as a positive development, suggesting displaced workers can transition to more fulfilling roles like food preparation and customer service. Gupta stated that AI should enable humanity to “serve the higher purpose of our lives” rather than performing “monotonous, repetitive, boring work.”
For restaurant brands, the message is clear: AI adoption is inevitable in the competitive fast-food landscape, where speed and efficiency are paramount.
Key Quotes
This unlocks the future of what hospitality means, starting in the drive-thru.
Michael Chorey, former Head of Innovation at Wendy’s and now cofounder and president of Presto IQ, made this statement to Business Insider. It reflects his vision that AI-powered ordering represents a fundamental transformation in how restaurants interact with customers, not just a technological upgrade.
Fast food is fast, and it’s only going to get faster — this is a very competitive landscape. Brands need to be able to make decisions quickly; they need to be able to adapt on the fly, whether it’s an operator at the restaurant or leadership within a broader brand, and these voice AI agents give them that ability.
Chorey emphasized the competitive pressure driving AI adoption in the fast-food industry. This quote underscores that AI implementation is becoming a business imperative rather than an optional innovation, as chains compete on speed and operational efficiency.
Nobody wakes up in the morning and says, ‘I want to take orders all day.’ So now you can go to that person and say, instead of doing that monotonous, repetitive, boring work, you can actually create the food and make orders and serve people with a smile.
Krishna Gupta, cofounder and co-CEO of Presto, offered this perspective on workforce displacement to Business Insider. While framing AI as liberating workers from tedious tasks, this statement also reveals the industry’s expectation that human order-takers will be completely eliminated within three years.
The accuracy definitely is improving.
Wendy’s CEO Kirk Tanner told investors in February about his personal testing of the FreshAI system. This acknowledgment that accuracy is still “improving” suggests the technology isn’t perfect but has reached a threshold where chains are willing to deploy it at scale despite ongoing refinements.
Our Take
Chorey’s transition from corporate innovator to technology provider is a classic Silicon Valley playbook move that validates AI drive-thru ordering as a genuine market opportunity. The fact that Wendy’s allowed its FreshAI architect to leave and commercialize similar technology suggests either confidence in their existing implementation or recognition that AI ordering will become commoditized across the industry.
The three-year timeline for complete human elimination from drive-thru ordering is aggressive but credible given the current deployment pace. However, the industry’s narrative about displaced workers moving to “higher purpose” roles deserves skepticism. Fast-food economics are built on minimizing labor costs, and it’s unclear whether chains will maintain headcount by reassigning workers or simply reduce staffing levels.
McDonald’s pivot from IBM to Google after its initial AI failure demonstrates that even technology giants struggle with real-world voice AI complexity. Chorey’s success at Wendy’s positions him as a rare expert who has actually solved these challenges at scale, making his Presto venture particularly noteworthy for the broader AI industry.
Why This Matters
This development represents a critical inflection point in the fast-food industry’s automation journey. Chorey’s move from a major restaurant chain to an AI technology provider signals that drive-thru automation has matured from experimental pilot programs to scalable, industry-wide solutions.
The story highlights the accelerating displacement of human workers in customer-facing roles, with Presto’s leadership predicting complete automation of drive-thru ordering within three years. This timeline is remarkably aggressive and suggests AI voice technology has overcome earlier accuracy and reliability challenges that plagued systems like McDonald’s failed IBM partnership.
The competitive dynamics are particularly significant. Wendy’s 300-600 location rollout, combined with Yum Brands’ expansion and Presto’s multi-brand partnerships, indicates that AI ordering is becoming a competitive necessity rather than an innovation experiment. Chains that delay adoption risk falling behind on speed and efficiency metrics that drive customer satisfaction.
Broader implications extend beyond fast food to any industry with repetitive customer service interactions. The technology’s success in noisy, variable drive-thru environments demonstrates AI’s readiness for complex real-world applications. However, the workforce impact raises important questions about job displacement, retraining, and whether displaced workers will actually transition to “higher purpose” roles as proponents claim.
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Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-chorey-wendys-freshai-presto-drive-thru-ai-automation-2025-8