500 stores isn't really "scale," that's only about 6% of their locations.
To be honest, if LLMs are good at anything, this is the exact kind of thing they are good at. It really isn't dumb that Taco Bell tried this.
I could also imagine how great it could potentially be for people to be able to view the menu and/or order in any language.
I think long ago I actually read an article posted to HN that essentially argued that most businesses don't take enough risks and that frequent risk-taking is statistically advantageous.
If they want to do automated voice ordering, then using multiple choice A/B/C/cancel (with feedback on screen) would seem less error prone than LLM open ended natural language with some kind of intent interpretation.
Of course most customers would prefer to interact with a person, but I don't think "vibe ordering" tacos is going to be the same!
Deep down the PMs know that’s just a touch screen but with voice. So no one’s getting a promotion for that.