Why McDonald's AI Failure Is Actually Great News for CX Leaders
PLUS: Two game-changing prompts to transform your customer experience strategy
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🗓️ August 4, 2025 ⏱️ Read Time: ~5 minutes
👋 Welcome
McDonald's just handed every CX leader a gift they didn't see coming: a perfect example of how NOT to use AI. While everyone's been chasing the dream of fully automated customer service, the Golden Arches quietly shut down their IBM-powered drive-thru experiment. The gap between AI hype and reality has never been more obvious.
📡 What's Really Happening
Companies are getting real about AI. While 92% say they're using AI, the truth is harsh: success isn't about having the coolest tech. It's about knowing where humans still matter most.
🧠 The Big Picture
Here's what's shifting: companies that learn from AI failures are beating those celebrating early wins. McDonald's embarrassing AI retreat isn't just a cautionary tale—it's proof of what happens when you put efficiency before customer experience.
📰 Stories That Matter
🚨 Companies must adapt to AI-driven customer trends or risk going out of business
The message is clear: businesses that stick to old customer experience methods are heading toward failure. Forbes contributor Shep Hyken put it bluntly: if you don't like change, you're going to hate going out of business. Companies are learning that AI works best when it helps humans create better experiences, not when it replaces them completely. Customers also want eco-friendly practices along with personalized service.
Why This Matters: Moving from old-school customer service to AI-powered experiences isn't a choice—it's about survival.
Try This: Look at your current customer touchpoints. Find which ones could use predictive analytics to solve customer problems before they even ask.
Source: WebProNews
🍟 McDonald's AI drive-thru disaster shows what happens when you rush change
McDonald's AI drive-thru failure with IBM teaches us more about successful change than most success stories. After teaming up with IBM in 2021 to use voice ordering at US locations, McDonald's quietly ended the program in July 2024. Why? Technical problems, angry customers, and viral TikTok videos showing "McChicken bills over $100." The problem was that AI responses seemed almost human but not quite right—creating frustration instead of satisfaction. This proves that slow implementation with human backup beats rushing to full automation.
Why This Matters: Even McDonald's and IBM couldn't solve the basic challenge of AI handling complex, real-world customer conversations.
Try This: Before using customer-facing AI, ask yourself: are you solving for speed or customer experience? McDonald's picked speed and damaged their reputation.
Source: Medium
📈 BCG study shows personalization leaders grow 10% faster while 90% of companies fall behind
The hard truth about AI-powered personalization: while leaders achieve 10% higher growth rates, only 10% of companies are personalization leaders. This leaves $2 trillion in missed opportunities over the next three years. BCG's Personalization Index studied 200 brands and found that real personalization means delivering five things: Empower Me, Know Me, Reach Me, Show Me, and Delight Me. Tech companies and banks lead the way, while retail and healthcare struggle with old systems and disconnected customer journeys.
Why This Matters: The personalization gap is creating winners and losers, where AI skills determine who dominates the market.
Try This: Check your organization against BCG's five personalization promises. If you can't deliver all five at scale, you're competing for leftover market share.
Source: BCG
📉 Forrester study reveals shocking truth: 21% of brands got worse at customer experience
The customer experience crisis is real, and the numbers are terrible. Forrester's 2025 Global CX Index shows that 21% of brands declined, only 6% improved, and 73% stayed the same. North America hit an all-time low. Despite huge AI investments, only 10 "elite" brands worldwide kept their top status. The study of 275,000 customers across 469 brands shows that even small customer experience improvements can reduce churn and increase sales, yet most companies are moving backward.
Why This Matters: The customer experience crisis shows that adding AI to broken customer experiences doesn't fix the real problems.
Try This: Check your customer experience against Forrester's three areas: effectiveness, ease, and emotion. Find out if you're among the declining 21% or stuck 73%.
Source: Forrester
🔄 Gartner predicts 50% of companies will abandon plans to cut customer service jobs with AI
The big AI job replacement reversal is coming. Gartner predicts that 50% of organizations expecting to cut their customer service workforce will abandon these plans by 2027, as the "no human agents" dream crashes into reality. Their March 2025 poll of 163 customer service leaders found 95% plan to keep human agents to strategically guide AI's role, using a "digital first, but not digital only" approach. While Gartner forecasts that AI will handle 80% of common issues by 2029, humans remain essential for complex interactions requiring empathy and understanding.
Why This Matters: The AI workforce replacement fantasy is hitting operational reality, forcing leaders to rethink human-AI teamwork instead of replacement.
Try This: Check your AI strategy: are you planning workforce reduction or workforce enhancement? The successful companies are choosing enhancement.
Source: Gartner
✍️ Prompt of the Day
AI Process Optimizer
Act as an AI agent that optimizes customer service processes. Look at this customer service workflow: [DESCRIBE YOUR CURRENT PROCESS].
Your job:
1. Find bottlenecks and problem areas
2. Suggest specific AI automation opportunities
3. Design a decision-making framework that works on its own
4. Set success metrics and when to escalate to humans
5. Create timeline with risk management
Show findings as: Problem → AI Solution → Automatic Action → Success Metric
Focus on solutions that need minimal human help while keeping service quality high.
What this reveals: Hidden automation opportunities in your current workflows
How to use it: Apply to any repetitive customer service process that currently needs human decisions
Where to test: Start with low-risk, high-volume interactions like order status questions or basic troubleshooting
🛠️ Try This Prompt
You are a customer experience transformation expert helping leaders navigate the "adapt or die" moment. Based on our current capabilities: [DESCRIBE YOUR TEAM'S CURRENT STATE], create a 90-day action plan that moves us from AI experiments to AI transformation.
Include:
- 3 quick wins (0-30 days) that show immediate results
- 2 foundation changes (30-60 days) that enable growth
- 1 strategic move (60-90 days) that gives us competitive advantage
For each initiative, specify: Resources needed, Success metrics, Risk factors, Dependencies
End with a one-sentence "transformation statement" that captures our new AI-first customer experience philosophy.
Immediate use: Planning your organization's move from AI pilot to AI-powered operations
Tactical benefit: Creates a structured roadmap with measurable goals instead of vague hopes
How to use quickly: Use this framework in your next customer experience strategy meeting to align leadership on transformation priorities
📎 CX Note to Self
"The companies that survive the AI revolution won't be the ones with the best technology—they'll be the ones that change fastest."
👋 See You Tomorrow
That’s it for today. It’s clear to me that the gap between AI hype and AI results is your competitive advantage—if you move thoughtfully instead of quickly.
What's one customer touchpoint in your organization that's ripe for AI enhancement (not replacement)? Hit reply and let me know. I read every response and often feature the best insights in future newsletters. 👋
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Have an AI‑mazing day!
—Mark
💡 P.S. Want more prompts? Grab the FREE 32 Power Prompts That Will Change Your CX Strategy – Forever to start transforming your team, now. 👉 FREE 32 Power Prompts That Will Change Your CX Strategy – Forever
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