How to Order at McDonald's Drive-Thru: Menu, Mobile App, and McDonald's New AI Voice Ordering
- 🔑 McDonald’s held its first investor day in about three years on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in Chicago, where it detailed “McDonald’s > NEXT,” a strategy backed by an $8.5 billion franchisee investment package running through 2036, aimed at faster service and higher restaurant-level efficiency.
- McDonald’s says its new ArchIQ platform, built with Google Cloud, now includes a drive-thru voice assistant nicknamed “Archy” that takes orders in English and Spanish; the company reports better-than-90% order accuracy and more than 1 million completed transactions during testing.
- Archy testing began with five US restaurants in June 2026 and had expanded to more than a dozen US locations plus an initial Australia trial by September 2026, according to McDonald’s; the company has not named which specific restaurants are running it.
- The standard McDonald’s drive-thru process is unchanged: pull up, read the digital menu board, speak your order, then pay and collect at the window — and Mobile Order & Pay in the McDonald’s app remains available at essentially every US location for ordering ahead.
- Rival Burger King rolled out its own AI drive-thru ordering earlier in 2026 and has since said it is making it easier for customers to reach a human staffer, after reports that some drivers left rather than talk to a bot.
- New McDonald’s restaurants built starting in the first quarter of 2028 are expected to use a “Restaurant > NEXT” design with reworked kitchens, dedicated beverage-prep areas, pickup lockers, and updated drive-thru lanes; this applies to new builds, not a mandated retrofit.
You can still order at any McDonald’s drive-thru the way you always have — pull up, read the menu board, and speak your order into a speaker — but the chain is now testing a new option: a generative-AI voice assistant that takes the order for you. McDonald’s laid out that test, along with a much bigger $8.5 billion investment plan, at its first investor day in roughly three years on Wednesday, September 23, 2026, in Chicago. Here’s what’s changing at the drive-thru, what isn’t, and how to use both the classic process and the McDonald’s app.
What did McDonald’s announce at its September 2026 investor day?
McDonald’s used the September 23, 2026 investor day at its Chicago headquarters to lay out “McDonald’s > NEXT,” a growth strategy the company first previewed at its biennial franchisee convention in June 2026, backed by an $8.5 billion franchisee investment package. According to the company’s own investor-day materials and a related SEC filing, roughly $5 billion of that total is committed by 2030, delivered through rent relief and direct capital help for equipment, technology, and remodeling, with the full $8.5 billion running through 2036. McDonald’s said the plan targets about 250 basis points of restaurant-level efficiency gain — an estimated $100,000 in added annual cash flow for the average US restaurant — and a 2030 operating-margin goal in the low-to-mid 50% range. The company also introduced a McDonald’s Media Network, a new advertising business that places ads from other brands inside the app and on in-restaurant and drive-thru digital screens.
What is ArchIQ, and how does Archy take a drive-thru order?
ArchIQ is McDonald’s new generative-AI restaurant platform, built with Google Cloud, and Archy is the nickname given to its drive-thru voice-ordering assistant. Beyond taking spoken orders, McDonald’s says ArchIQ also handles automated inventory tracking, connected kitchen equipment with computer-vision checks, AI bag-weighing scales meant to catch a mismatched order before it reaches the customer, and staff-scheduling tools. Archy itself takes orders in English and Spanish; McDonald’s reports better-than-90% order accuracy and says the system has processed more than 1 million transactions at test restaurants, with about 90% of orders completing without a staff member stepping in. These are the company’s own figures from an active pilot, not independently audited results, so treat them as McDonald’s account of how the test is going rather than settled fact.
Where is Archy actually available right now?
Archy is not available nationwide — it’s a limited pilot, and McDonald’s has not published which specific restaurants are running it. The test started with five US locations in June 2026, timed to the company’s worldwide franchisee convention, and McDonald’s said by the September investor day that it had grown to more than a dozen US restaurants, plus an initial trial location in Australia — the system’s first stop outside the US. If you’re not at one of those test sites, your drive-thru order is still taken by a person, exactly as before.
How do I order at a standard McDonald’s drive-thru?
At a regular McDonald’s drive-thru, you pull up to the outdoor menu board, review the digital menu (it can rotate items by time of day), and speak your order into the speaker when prompted, then pull forward to pay and pick up at the window. Staff can repeat your order back for confirmation before you pull ahead, and most locations still let you pay by card, contactless, or cash at the window. Nothing about that basic sequence has changed with the AI pilot or the investor-day announcements.
How does Mobile Order & Pay work in the McDonald’s app?
Mobile Order & Pay lets you build your order in the McDonald’s app before you arrive, pay in advance, and simply confirm it at the speaker or window when you pull in. After placing the order, the app typically asks you to select “drive-thru” as your pickup method and confirms your visit either automatically via location services or by having you enter a short code at the speaker box. The app is also where McDonald’s MyMcDonald’s Rewards loyalty points, available coupons, and any personalized deal offers get applied, and it’s separate from the Archy test — Mobile Order & Pay is already standard at essentially every US location.
| Method | Steps | Availability |
|---|---|---|
| Speaker order | Pull up, read board, speak order, pay at window | All US locations |
| App order | Build order in app, confirm at speaker/window | All US locations |
| Archy (AI) | Speak order to AI voice assistant | Limited US/Australia test sites only |
Is McDonald’s AI drive-thru ordering going to spread industry-wide?
Not necessarily, and not quickly — McDonald’s own history and a competitor’s recent experience both argue for caution. McDonald’s previously tested automated drive-thru ordering with IBM technology and shelved it in 2024 after videos of ordering mistakes went viral. Rival Burger King rolled out its own AI drive-thru ordering system earlier in 2026, and the company’s own brand-technology executive has since said customers have driven off rather than talk to a bot, prompting Burger King to make it easier to reach a human order-taker rather than pushing AI as the default. McDonald’s is framing Archy as a measured, still-small test rather than a national rollout, and has not announced a timeline for expanding beyond its current pilot restaurants.
What other changes are coming to McDonald’s restaurants?
New McDonald’s restaurants built starting in the first quarter of 2028 are expected to use a “Restaurant > NEXT” design, with reworked kitchens, a dedicated beverage-and-dessert prep area, delivery and mobile-order pickup lockers, updated drive-thru lane configurations, bigger PlayPlaces, and a more visible McCafé prep area. That design standard applies to new builds, not a mandated retrofit of every existing restaurant, and McDonald’s has said the full package of NEXT-strategy elements could add roughly $800,000 in investment per traditional US drive-thru location.
Bottom line
For almost every McDonald’s customer, ordering at the drive-thru still means the same speaker-and-window routine it always has, or building the order ahead of time in the McDonald’s app — Archy is a real but narrow experiment McDonald’s is running at a small, expanding set of restaurants while it decides whether generative-AI ordering is ready for everyone else.