Taco Bell (Yum Brands)
Taco Bell expands Omilia voice AI to 890+ US drive-thrus while a different Yum system was slowed
Taco Bell's partnership with Omilia on drive-thru voice AI began in 2023, and Omilia says it now runs in over 890 US Taco Bell restaurants across 38 states. Restaurant Dive notes that a different Yum Brands voice AI, built with Nvidia tools, was slowed in 2025 after customer complaints and prank orders.
Key figures
Copied exactly from the sources. Copy any figure with its citation.
38
US states covered by those restaurants1
about 500
Restaurants reached by Yum's earlier, separate drive-thru voice AI before it was slowed in 20252
18,000
Cups of water given as an example of the trolling orders placed on that earlier system2
What it took
Cost, team size and timeline were not disclosed in the sources.
The problem
Taking orders at a drive-thru is fast, noisy work that ties up staff during the busiest hours. Menus change by store and by day, customers have different accents and change their minds mid-order. Taco Bell wanted software that could take the order so team members could focus on hospitality.
What they built
Taco Bell uses a voice AI platform from Omilia, a conversational AI company. It listens at the drive-thru speaker, takes the order and adapts to each restaurant's menu, stock levels and limited-time offers. Omilia says it is built on small language models, which are compact AI language systems, tuned for road noise and drive-thru speech.
How they did it
The two companies began working together in 2023. In July 2026 they announced a new agreement to keep deploying the system across Taco Bell's US restaurants. Taco Bell told Restaurant Dive and Nation's Restaurant News that Omilia is one of several technology partners, working alongside Yum Brands' own platform, Byte by Yum. Sources do not give cost, team size or a rollout schedule.
Results
Omilia and Taco Bell report that the system is live in over 890 US restaurants across 38 states. Omilia says the restaurants show transaction times level with or quicker than traditional order-taking, complaints at parity or better, and higher staff retention. It gives no figures for these claims.
What went wrong
Yum Brands' earlier drive-thru voice AI, which Yum created with Nvidia in March 2025 and then deployed to about 500 restaurants, ran into trouble. Restaurant Dive reports that by August 2025 Yum slowed and rethought the rollout after customers complained and others trolled the system, for example by ordering 18,000 cups of water. Taco Bell says it remains committed to voice AI across its system.
Lessons for your project
Expect real customers to test the limits. An earlier Yum Brands drive-thru voice system was trolled with absurd orders such as 18,000 cups of water, so plan limits and a human fallback for odd orders.
Scale in steps and be ready to slow down. Yum slowed and rethought its earlier rollout after complaints, and Taco Bell says it remains committed to voice AI.
Do not rely on one supplier. Taco Bell says it works with several technology providers, Omilia among them.
Ask for independent measurement of headline claims. Speed, satisfaction and staff retention are reported by the vendor and need your own tracking.
Caveats
- The figures come from Omilia's own announcement, repeated by news outlets. No independent measurement is reported, so the case is labelled vendor-reported.
- Omilia states that restaurants using the system have transaction times level with or quicker than traditional order-taking, equal or fewer complaints, and higher employee retention. No numbers are given for any of these, so they are not listed as metrics.
- The source says the platform uses proprietary small language models and generative AI capabilities. No named model is disclosed.
- Sources give only the year the partnership began (2023). The date shown is that partnership year, not a confirmed go-live date for the first restaurant.
- The roughly 500-restaurant rollout and the water-cup prank belong to a different Yum Brands voice AI built with Nvidia tools, as Restaurant Dive reports. The sources do not say whether the two systems share restaurants.
Sources
- Omilia Powers Taco Bell's Expansion of Voice AI Across 890+ U.S. Drive-Thrus
Omilia · 2026-07-07 · Press release · omilia.com
- Taco Bell revs up drive-thru AI deployment
Restaurant Dive · 2026-07-07 · News · restaurantdive.com
- Taco Bell's drive-thru voice AI expands to nearly 900 restaurants
Nation's Restaurant News · 2026-07-08 · News · nrn.com
Summarized in our own words from the sources above. Spotted an error? See corrections.