Part of Trussville road to close
Green Drive meets North Chalkville Road at the intersection next to Wendy's and Guthrie's.
Alabama lawmakers introduce bill to fight veterans suicide
The road will be closed between North Chalkville Road and Bentley Way, which runs behind Wendy's, from Feb. 17 to March 14.
The county is asking residents to use Norrell Drive as an alternate route.
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USA Today
6 hours ago
- USA Today
Wendy's follows McDonald's by adding chicken tenders to its menu. See when.
It's going to be a chicken strip-filled fall season at Wendy's. The fast-food chain is "extending (its) chicken lineup" by introducing a couple of new menu offerings, including chicken tenders, in the fourth quarter, Wendy's Interim CEO Kenneth Cook said at a recent earnings call. Along with the chicken tenders, Wendy's is releasing a "modernized and improved" sauce lineup. Wendy's announcement comes months after McCrispy Strips (and the Creamy Chili Dip) made its debut at McDonald's. According to Cook, the chicken tenders are "crafted using the highest quality ingredients, including 100% white meat coated in light, crispy, and flavorful breading." "Through testing, it was clear that consumers could taste the difference," Cook said during the earnings call. "I believe we are delivering exactly what customers want: a craveable, juicy, and all-around delicious product in a fast-growing part of the protein market." Here is what we know about Wendy's new chicken tenders, including when they'll be available: See what's in it: 'Wednesday'-themed Meal of Misfortune available at Wendy's Chicken tenders, sauce lineup arrives in October 2025 Wendy's chicken tenders and sauce lineup, which consists of six different sauce varieties, will make their debut sometime in the fourth quarter. According to the fast-food chain, the fourth quarter runs Oct. 1 to Dec. 28. "We're also rolling out a modernized and improved sauce lineup with the launch of our chicken tenders with six new varieties of sauces, including my personal favorite, Sweet Chili, and a new Wendy's signature sauce with a tangy kick," Cook said. "I think our tenders and sauces are fantastic, and I'm confident our customers will love them too." In addition to the new menu offerings, Wendy's is also focused on "beverage innovation." New caffeinated beverage lineups, including cold brew (and cold foam), energy drinks, and a hot coffee blend, will also hit menus.
Business Insider
20 hours ago
- Business Insider
Wendy's AI guru joins Presto — and he's betting drive-thrus may never be the same
If you ask Michael Chorey, " Can AI take your order?" The answer is a resounding "yes." The founder and chief inventor of Wendy's FreshAI has departed from the burger chain and joined AI automation provider Presto as cofounder and president of its new division, Presto IQ. Over the last three years, Chorey helped Wendy's build an AI that he says can take customer orders faster and more efficiently than a worker wearing a headset. Now, he's betting the same tech will reshape the entire fast-food industry, one drive-thru at a time. The move marks a major shift for Chorey, who's stepping out of the corporate kitchen and into the broader world of tech providers with a plan to personalize — and partially automate — interactions between restaurants, their workers, and their customers. It's also a signal that the fast-food segment is rethinking its approach to AI. "This unlocks the future of what hospitality means, starting in the drive-thru," Chorey told Business Insider. Chorey spent three of his five years at Wendy's working to bring FreshAI to life. By the time he left the company in early August, he said the chain, which started testing the AI voice assistant in 2023, had implemented AI ordering at 300 drive-thru sites and planned to roll out the tech at as many as 600 locations by year's end. Representatives for Wendy's did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider. Business Insider previously reported that Wendy's CEO Kirk Tanner told investors in February that the FreshAI system, created with Google Cloud,"gives customers the opportunity to build their orders." Despite early customer concerns about ease of use and accuracy, Tanner said he personally tests the technology a few times a week at a Wendy's location near the company's headquarters, adding that FreshAI "understands what to ask for, and the accuracy definitely is improving." The AI rollout race at a drive-thru near you Wendy's isn't the only chain that has rolled out AI-powered ordering assistants in recent years, but it is among the furthest along in implementing the technology. In 2021, McDonald's began testing an AI ordering system it created in collaboration with IBM, but rolled it back after videos showing flaws in the tech went viral in 2023, and ended the program in June 2024, Business Insider previously reported. In March, The Wall Street Journal reported McDonald's had struck a new deal, this time with Google, to revisit how to integrate AI across its global portfolio. Yum Brands, the parent company of chains including KFC and Pizza Hut, announced last July that it would expand the use of its AI-powered drive-thru assistant to hundreds of Taco Bell locations by year's end, in addition to five KFC locations in Australia, Business Insider reported. Presto's technology is already being tested at major chains like Carl's Jr. and Hardee's, both owned by CKE Restaurants, as well as Wienerschnitzel and Yoshinoya. Representatives for the chains did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider. Automated service with a smile Chorey said the main benefit — and challenge — of his work with Presto is expanding the technology to work seamlessly for each of the different brands and their customers. "If you listen to orders during lunchtime versus orders in the middle of the day, the way the human crew members talk to the customer changes, the way customers talk to the human crew member changes, and that changes even more with each brand," Chorey said. "Effective AI platforms are able to adapt, just like our human crew members, to create a very consistent experience, every time you come to a restaurant." As AI becomes more mainstream in the fast food sector, the Presto team knows the tech will disrupt the workers on the other end of the drive-thru box. Krishna Gupta, the cofounder and co-CEO of Presto, told Business Insider he expects there to be no human operators taking orders at drive-thrus within the next three years. Still, he added, "nobody wakes up in the morning and says, 'I want to take orders all day.'" "So now you can go to that person and say, instead of doing that monotonous, repetitive, boring work, you can actually create the food and make orders and serve people with a smile," Gupta said. "And that's my hope for AI tech broadly, is that it enables all of humanity to do that, and serve the higher purpose of our lives." For the brands considering implementing the technology, Gupta and Chorey said it's less a matter of "if" and more a matter of "when" they need to get on board, given the continuously evolving needs of the dining industry. " Fast food is fast, and it's only going to get faster — this is a very competitive landscape," Chorey said. "Brands need to be able to make decisions quickly; they need to be able to adapt on the fly, whether it's an operator at the restaurant or leadership within a broader brand, and these voice AI agents give them that ability." The drive-thru lanes were just the beginning. With AI agents already capable of upselling your order of french fries, the next evolution of fast food is smart, scalable — and increasingly inhuman.
Yahoo
a day ago
- Yahoo
Earnings Show Fast-Food Giants Embroiled in a Game of Chicken
Where's the beef? No one cares — show us to the poultry, please. Last week delivered a bevvy of earnings reports from fast-food giants — including McDonald's, Wendy's, Yum! Brands, and Restaurant Brands International — with the results showing the industry's biggest trend continues apace: Customers can't get enough chicken, especially when offered at a discount. READ ALSO: Ford Crosses into Fast Lane With $2 Billion Affordable EV Plan and Paramount Ponies Up $7.7 Billion to Win UFC Rights Winner, Winner, Value Chicken Dinner First things first: Amid a prolonged period of economic uncertainty, the value menu remains invaluable. But even a price war among the world's biggest restaurant chains isn't enough to keep low-income consumers coming through drive-throughs. Instead, they continue to flee fast food in favor of value grocery stores, R.J. Hottovy, head of analytical research at told The Daily Upside. In what may be a macroeconomic bellwether, Hottovy also said low-income consumers are increasingly shifting down even from value grocery chains like Aldi to cheaper convenience stores and dollar stores. Still, value remains a big driver. So much so that in its second-quarter earnings call on Friday, Wendy's said a major driver of a sales decline (that still beat analysts' expectations) was having too many promotions, which interim CEO Ken Cook said 'sent too many different messages' to customers. 'We learned that when we have too many priorities, we have none,' Cook added, before saying that Wendy's will have one top priority through the rest of the year: chicken. (McDonald's seemed to crack the code this past quarter, citing the return of its McCrispy Chicken Strips driving sales growth.) For more evidence of chicken fever, look no further than Yum's portfolio: True, not even chicken could save the colonel: Same-store sales at US Kentucky Fried Chicken locations slid 5%, as the chain continues to suffer amid increased competition from the likes of Raising Cane's and Wingstop. But Taco Bell saw US same-store sales growth of 4%, with Yum citing a new line of Crispy Chicken menu items and the reintroduction of chicken nuggets. In fact, Yum CEO David Gibbs said Taco Bell's chicken sales are up 50% in the past two years. 'Most people are reporting negative quarters. We haven't even had a negative week for Taco Bell,' Gibbs said. Extra Guac, Please: Pricier chains are facing the same pressures — and struggling. Shares of Sweetgreen plunged more than 25% on Friday after the chain lowered its profit guidance for the second consecutive quarter. Meanwhile, Chipotle experienced its second straight quarter of same-store sales declines, with CEO Scott Boatwright saying the chain needs to figure out how to 'communicate value and showcase value.' Did you catch that, Chipotle employees? To our ears, it sounds like your CEO is practically begging you to give us a scoop of guacamole on the house. This post first appeared on The Daily Upside. To receive delivering razor sharp analysis and perspective on all things finance, economics, and markets, subscribe to our free The Daily Upside newsletter.
