Bojangles Takes Its AI Drive-Thru Systemwide

Burger King is slowing down. Taco Bell already did. Bojangles is going all in.

The chicken chain has signed a multiyear extension with Hi Auto to put Bo-Linda, its AI drive-thru order taker, across its entire 890-plus-unit system, Nation's Restaurant News reported Oct. 22. The test began in 2024 and has since reached nearly 500 locations. More than 100 more are expected by mid-2027.

Bojangles and Hi Auto say Bo-Linda processes more than 1 million orders a week with a 98% success rate.

The extension adds features aimed squarely at throughput. A new upselling mode reads the length of the drive-thru line and, when it's long, suggests items that are quicker to make. Orders now flow to the point of sale through a direct connection to Global Payments' Genius platform, which the companies say improves reliability. And each order is paired with a photo of the car that placed it, so crews can sort out who's who when two lanes merge.

Here's the franchise wrinkle. In a September interview with Franchise Update, chief information officer Richard Del Valle said 280 of the 452 stores then running Bo-Linda were company-owned, and that franchisees weren't required to adopt it. Franchisee Michael Haynes is one who did. “What matters to me is whether a system actually works at the store level, day in and day out,” he said in a statement.

Guests are a tougher sell. Technomic data cited by NRN shows 23% of consumers find ordering from an AI drive-thru bot appealing, while 46% find it unappealing. Bojangles bought rather than built, and as our Wingstop column argued, that choice matters less than picking one job and wiring up the data it needs. Square is chasing the same counter from a different direction with a kiosk that talks back.

The drive-thru is one voice channel. For most franchise systems outside quick service, the phone is the one that books revenue, and it has the same problem: someone has to answer, every time. Revscale, which publishes Revscale Media, works that line with its off-the-shelf Voice Agent, which answers inbound calls, captures the caller's details and intent, schedules follow-up and transfers to a person when needed, with every call recorded and transcribed. The design choice Bojangles made applies there too: the AI handles the routine and a human stays one handoff away.

The number to watch now is the franchised side of the system. Del Valle said in September that holdouts usually come around after seeing it in person. Systemwide means he gets to test that claim.

Revscale Media is published by Revscale.