Chick-fil-A keeps human order-takers as retail data hits CTV ads

TL;DR

Chick-fil-A is keeping humans at the drive-thru while automating everything around them, and Magnite is pushing retail purchase data into connected TV for Walmart Connect and Best Buy Ads. Both cases teach the same lesson: automate the friction, protect the customer contact, and check whether the measurement actually matches the decision your business is making.

Key takeaways

Chick-fil-A will not replace drive-thru employees with voice AI, while Wendy's, McDonald's and others keep expanding automated ordering.
Voice AI now operates in an estimated 6% of U.S. drive-thrus, but customer reception remains mixed.
Chick-fil-A automates around the interaction: its McDonough, Georgia restaurant uses a conveyor that delivers a meal every six seconds and handles two to three times conventional traffic.
Magnite supports Walmart Connect's Yahoo DSP integration, now in alpha, and Best Buy Ads' partnership with LG Ad Solutions for CTV inventory.
A Hidden Valley Ranch proof of concept reported 55% incremental reach beyond linear TV and CPMs 27% below previous CTV campaigns, but that proves efficiency, not incremental sales.
Local businesses should verify geographic controls, eligible audiences and reporting detail before treating any retail media or AI tool as a growth solution.

Every industry is now deciding which parts of its customer experience a machine can own and which parts must stay human. Two developments this month show how differently that question gets answered. Chick-fil-A’s chief executive, Andrew Cathy, said the chain has no intention of replacing the employees who take drive-thru orders with artificial intelligence, even as rivals push voice systems into the lane. At the same time, ad-technology firm Magnite announced that Walmart Connect and Best Buy Ads have both chosen its infrastructure to carry retail purchase data into connected TV advertising. One company is automating everything around the conversation. The other is wiring customer data into new buying channels. Both are making the same underlying bet: value lives where the brand actually touches the customer.

Where hospitality meets retail data at the drive-thru

Chick-fil-A’s stance cuts against the prevailing assumption that order-taking is an obvious target for automation. Wendy’s has been deploying FreshAI, developed with Google Cloud. McDonald’s is preparing another voice-AI test after ending its earlier trial with IBM. Other chains want automated ordering for consistency, less pressure on staff, and more algorithmic upselling. Voice AI now runs in an estimated 6% of U.S. drive-thrus, though its performance and customer reception remain mixed. For Chick-fil-A, eliminating the employee could eliminate part of the product.

The bet is that the person greeting a customer in the drive-thru is not operational friction, it is part of what the customer came for.

The chain moved fully to face-to-face drive-thru ordering in 2012, long before generative AI made automated conversation seem practical. Workers carrying tablets approach vehicles before they reach the menu board. Orders reach the kitchen sooner, and customers get a more personal interaction than a speaker allows. The human order-taker became a brand feature years before AI made it a choice.

The economics back the decision. Chick-fil-A generated roughly $23.9 billion in U.S. systemwide sales in 2025, according to its franchise disclosure documents. Its restaurants have historically produced far higher average sales than most fast-food competitors. Even when its lines look slow, research shows the chain performs strongly once service time is adjusted for the vehicles in queue. Customers rate it highly for accuracy, food quality and employee friendliness. A struggling chain facing staffing shortages might reasonably conclude that voice AI beats an overburdened worker. Chick-fil-A has the room to say no.

Automating around the interaction, not through it

The company’s elevated drive-thru restaurant in McDonough, Georgia, shows the boundary it is drawing. The kitchen sits above four drive-thru lanes. A conveyor system can deliver a meal to an employee every six seconds, and the design handles two to three times the traffic of a conventional location. Customers can order digitally, but anyone ordering at the restaurant still talks to an employee. Technology speeds up everything except the hospitality itself. That selectiveness matters more than any single refusal of AI. A system that performs well on routine orders can still fail when a customer has an allergy question, modifies several items, or simply cannot make the software understand them.

The same logic in advertising plumbing

Magnite’s recent announcements are the advertising version of the same calculation. On October 6, Walmart Connect said its integration with Yahoo DSP, supported by Magnite, is moving from proof of concept into alpha, bringing Walmart audiences and closed-loop measurement into Yahoo’s buying platform. The following day, LG Ad Solutions partnered with Best Buy Ads to connect the retailer’s audiences and sales measurement with LG Home Screen and CTV video inventory, transacted programmatically through Magnite and available immediately. Magnite supplies the sell-side technology; the retailer brings the shopper relationship, and the buying platform brings activation. Retail data now reaches TV through the workflows media teams already use.

The early numbers explain the interest. A Hidden Valley Ranch proof of concept with Walmart reported 55% incremental reach beyond linear TV and CPMs 27% below previous CTV campaigns of similar duration. Those figures describe reach and buying efficiency, not proven incremental sales, and that distinction is where Chick-fil-A’s lesson transfers. Closed-loop reporting connects exposure with purchases a retailer recorded. Whether the advertising caused those purchases requires further analysis. Buyers should understand attribution windows, comparison groups and which sales are counted before comparing results across networks. For a multi-location business, a purchase signal is only useful if the customer can actually act on the ad in the market being promoted. Measurement must match the decision a local operator is making.

What local businesses should take from both

Neither story offers a template every business can copy. Chick-fil-A’s choice rests on unusually strong economics and a brand built on friendliness. Magnite’s partnerships serve national campaigns, and Walmart’s separately announced live linear TV offering uses FreeWheel technology, so buyers must check which route does what. The useful question in both cases is the same. Which parts of the experience do customers associate with the brand, and does automation strengthen or weaken them?

For a restaurant, a gym or a salon running campaigns across Meta, Google and now connected TV, the answer will differ. A regional promotion needs evidence of visits within its own system, not just reach. Geographic controls, eligible audiences and reporting detail deserve scrutiny before any retail media partnership is treated as a solution for local growth. Chick-fil-A is automating around the interaction. Advertisers are wiring data into channels they already buy. Both are learning to distinguish the friction worth removing from the contact worth keeping, and the businesses that get that distinction right will spend their technology budgets where it actually shows.

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