Americans want customer interactions to be human, not AI

The Ipsos Consumer Tracker, fielded on Ipsos' Omnibus platform, asks Americans questions about culture, the economy and the forces that shape our lives. Here's one thing we learned this week.

Why we asked: Stories about experiments with AI in the drive-thru continue, and on top of that, I was moderating a panel at a QSR-related event so it was top-of-mind.

What we found: The panel, which included folks from the Coca-Cola Co., Qualtrics and Firehouse Subs talked about the human/tech tensions. People strongly prefer having humans actually make the food, and few strongly prefer having ordering or prep automated. But one takeaway from the panel is that mixing those things can work fine. Get greeted by a human and then use a kiosk to order? That can cover our human needs.