In-N-Out Says No to AI and Apps

I make my money as a customer experience designerconsultant, and trainer. Every day I hear one company or another going on about “the importance of the human touch” or words to that effect.

Most of them don’t mean it or don’t mean it for long. They mean it right up until the moment the CFO presents a spreadsheet showing how much they’d save by replacing humans with software. Then the humans go and the touchscreens come.

Why In-N-Out is rejecting automation

When a company as successful as In-N-Out Burger — 10 states, every location company-owned, multi-hour lines at every new opening — flatly rejects mobile ordering, delivery apps, and automation, it’s worth paying attention.

To all of these “modernizations,” president and sole owner Lynsi Snyder-Ellingson offers a clear answer: “No.”

Instead, In-N-Out is doubling down on humans, sending more employees outside into the drive-thru line, with handheld tablets to take your order face to face before you even reach the window, which is very much bucking the trend.

Wendy’s is testing AI chatbots at the drive-thru speaker. McDonald’s tried it, although it’s pulled back, at least for now. Starbucks lets you skip the line entirely with an app. In-N-Out, on the other hand, is going the opposite direction.

In-N-Out’s reasoning comes down to what the company would lose, the “part of what makes In-N-Out and the experience so special… the interaction and the customer service that we’re able to give, the smile, the greeting, that warmth, and feeling that culture,” according to Snyder-Ellingson, in remarks reported by ABC7 Los Angeles.