VIENNA AGENTIC INCIDENTS DATABASE
// public database of incidents involving autonomous AI agents, scored on the VAID scale 0–8

database / VAID-2024-0008

2
INCIDENT
Incident

Reports of order-taking errors during McDonald's IBM AI pilot

REF VAID-2024-0008 STATUS REPORTED
no incident type assigned
occurred
Not established
reported
2024-06-18
location
United States (100+ restaurants)
domain
consumer
agent system
IBM Automated Order Taking voice-recognition system
reporter
VAIDDB editorial
origin
editorial
source
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c722gne7qngo

== SUMMARY ==

Customers published examples of erroneous drive-thru orders during McDonald's automated order-taking pilot. McDonald's subsequently announced the end of its current IBM AOT partnership and removal of the system from more than 100 test restaurants.

== DESCRIPTION ==

Established facts

BBC reporting describes videos involving unwanted butter, additional tea orders, large chicken-nugget orders and bacon added to ice cream. McDonald's said the technology would be removed by the end of July and that it would continue evaluating future voice-ordering solutions.

Attribution and limits

The reporting establishes order-recognition errors and termination of the pilot, not that these errors alone caused the business decision. Noise, absent human override, completed charges and lasting customer losses are not independently established for all examples. IBM defended the technology's performance and said other work with McDonald's would continue.

VAID assessment

Assessment date: 2026-09-09. Consequences-first rubric.

Provisional L2: Reported incorrect drive-thru orders establish limited harm through erroneous service outputs. Completed charges and lasting customer losses are not established for all examples. The pilot's presence at more than 100 restaurants and its termination do not establish widespread severe harm or that these errors caused the business decision. L2 is the lowest supported consequence level, not an upper bound on unreported losses.

== REFERENCES ==

  1. news McDonald's ends test run of AI-powered drive-thrus with IBM — AP, 2024-06-18
  2. news Bacon ice cream and nugget overload sees misfiring McDonald's AI withdrawn — BBC, 2024-06-18

== INVESTIGATION ==

no investigation recorded.

== VAID LEVEL 2: INCIDENT ==

Limited adverse effects on a task, user or service.

  • Small financial loss, erroneous service outputs, bounded unwanted communications or a limited personal reputational attack.
  • Local operational or resource disruption without established substantial outage or severe lasting damage.
  • Recovery, data sensitivity and downstream losses must not be assumed when sources leave them unknown.

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