• From American whiskey to French Champagne, alcohol has become a factor in Trump's trade war.
• Both beverages could see tariffs in the coming weeks unless the US reaches a deal with the EU.
• Businesses, from wine shops to restaurants, are already reacting to the potential tariffs.

President Donald Trump might not drink, but his trade war is shaking and stirring up the market for some of the most popular boozy beverages globally.

On Wednesday, the European Union responded to US tariffs on aluminum and steel by imposing a 50% duty on various products starting on April 1, including one of the US's most well-known drinks: whiskey.

Just a day later, Trump threatened a 200% tariff on wine and alcohol from EU countries, including iconic French Champagne. It's unclear when or if that levy will take effect, but it's already prompting reactions in the US.

Some wine shops, for instance, are promoting specials for customers who want to stock up on European wine, with one in New York City sending out emails to regular customers offering "tariff buster" deals.

Alexandra Ivanac and her husband Stephen Varela, who run the Italian-Croatian restaurant Villa Berulia in Manhattan, said Trump's threats are "alarming." The restaurant carries about 75 European wines and upcharges alcohol 2.5 to 3 times, higher than many dishes.

"How does an Italian restaurant pivot away from European wine?" Varela said.

It's making them question whether to absorb the costs or pass them on to customers. Ivanac said they may instead look to South America, South Africa, Australia, or New Zealand for wines if the tariffs go into effect, as well as some California wines. Varela also said they may order twice as much wine as normal and stockpile it in their basement.

"Some of these wines are going for, on the higher end, $200 to $300, so how much could we really increase prices?" Varela said, adding some customers are more cautious about spending given economic concerns.

The US accounts for about 31% of EU wine and spirit exports, according to Eurostat, the EU statistics office. The EU, meanwhile, made up about 40% of the export market for US spirits in 2023, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

For US winemakers, the latest tariff threat could be an opportunity.

Zach Pelka, cofounder and COO at New York-based Une Femme Wines, said his company developed a supply chain that sits almost entirely within the US after COVID made sourcing abroad more complicated and expensive.

Pelka said he expects more US-based alcohol brands to focus domestically if Trump's 200% tariff takes effect.

If the US's threats come true, Pelka expects that Une Femme will become a more attractive option for restaurants, retailers, hotels, and other customers who want a steady source of wine in the US.

"As of today, I think it becomes the focal point of the pitch" to buyers, he said of the potential tariff.

Tariff talk has already caused consumers in other countries to buy from local suppliers instead of importing from the US. Many Canadians are looking for "Made in Canada" alternatives in light of the levies that the Trump administration has threatened and enacted on that country's goods.

Whether any or all of the taxes materialize remains to be seen. Last week, Trump imposed a 25% tariff on imports from Canada and Mexico — only to suspend it shortly afterward for most items until April 2.

Even if the tariffs take effect, drinkers might not see higher prices right away.

Blake Leonard, president of wine at Stew Leonard's Wine & Spirits, which operates several shops in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, told BI that some of her suppliers brought months' worth of European wine and even tequila from Mexico into the US to get ahead of potential tariffs.

That early action will help Stew Leonard's keep prices for many beverages stable, at least temporarily. "The last thing we want to do as a family business is raise prices for our customers," Leonard said. About half of all wine that the chain sells comes from European nations — primarily France and Italy, she said.

To say the situation is fluid "would be a massive understatement," said Lawson Whiting, the CEO of Brown-Forman, which makes Jack Daniel's whiskey and counts Europe as a major export market. "It seems like things are changing very, very quickly."

The April 1 effective date for the EU's tariffs on US whiskey leaves time for the US and the EU to resolve their differences, Whiting said at an industry conference on Wednesday, the day the EU announced its latest tariffs.

"That does give me some optimism that both the administration and the other counterparties over the last few weeks have been trying to resolve things," Whiting said.

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• Dollar General's customers were still struggling going into 2025, its CEO said Thursday.
• Many "have had to sacrifice, even on the necessities," CEO Todd Vasos said.
• He doesn't expect that situation to change for the rest of 2025.

The year is off to a rocky start for Dollar General shoppers — and it's not expected to get better, the chain's CEO said Thursday.

Patrons of the dollar store chain have indicated that "their financial situation has worsened over the last year as they have been negatively impacted by ongoing inflation," CEO Todd Vasos said.

"Many of our customers report they only have enough money for basic essentials with some noting that they have had to sacrifice even on the necessities," he added.

Looking at the rest of 2025, Dollar General is "not anticipating improvement in the macro environment, particularly for our core customer," Vasos said.

Shares of Dollar General were 5% higher on Thursday morning after the chain issued sales guidance for the year that was on the high end of analysts' expectations.

Dollar General is the latest retailer to take a cautious stance on consumer spending for this year. Walmart executives said last month that they were taking a "measured" outlook on 2025.

A major reason is the series of tariffs that President Donald Trump has either implemented or threatened on a wide range of goods, from electronics to booze.

Retailers, including Best Buy and Target, said that they expected to raise prices in response to the tariffs.

Vasos said Thursday that Dollar General was "well-positioned to mitigate the impact in 2025" of the tariffs so far announced, though he acknowledged that the situation could change.

Even without the effect of tariffs, though, Dollar General's target shopper is struggling, he said.

"She's always strained, as we always say, because of her economic wellbeing, but I would tell you that she is also resourceful," Vasos said of Dollar General's typical customer.

Many of the chain's shoppers are only now just getting their "sea legs" when it comes to budgeting for "the additional inflation that's been very sticky out there," he added. Inflation increased less than expected in February, with some items actually declining in price. Price increases for some essentials, such as food, continued rising, though.

Shoppers with higher incomes have also continued to turn to the dollar store chain as they attempt to save money, Vasos said. Discount retailers from Dollar General to Walmart have said over the last few years that more consumers with six-figure incomes started shopping at their stores as inflation rose.

"Nothing that we've seen so far would show that that trade-down has slowed down," Vasos added.

One benefit for Dollar General has been some of its rivals closing stores. The chain added more party supplies to its Popshelf stores, for instance, after reports that Party City was winding down its operations, Vasos said. Dollar General has also taken market share from drugstore chains that are closing stores, he said.

"I believe that there will be further opportunity," Vasos said.

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• Walmart is asking some Spark delivery drivers to verify their identities at a store.
• Gig delivery workers get $15 for verifying their identity in person.
• Some drivers have used Spark accounts to make deliveries under other people's names.

Walmart is asking some of its Spark drivers to prove who they say they are the old-fashioned way — and paying them to do it.

Some drivers for the retailer's delivery service are being asked to bring their driver's license to a Walmart store, where someone from the big box chain will verify their identity in person, according to an in-app message reviewed by Business Insider.

Spark drivers who verify their identity at a store will receive a one-time $15 payment, the email said.

"All drivers in your area will need to complete an in-person identity verification" to keep using the Spark app, according to the message, which directed drivers to a store in Northwest Arkansas, the region home to Walmart's corporate headquarters. The email gave the drivers a deadline of this week to complete the check.

The in-person ID check appears to be Walmart's latest effort to deter people who are using Spark under identities other than their own.

Some Spark drivers appear to shop and deliver for the service using accounts under other people's names, BI previously reported.

Accounts for Spark and other delivery apps are often offered for sale on social media, such as in Facebook groups for gig workers. Some of the posts make a pitch to people who don't have "papers," a reference to not having work authorization in the US, or say that having multiple accounts will allow them to deliver multiple orders at once and make more money.

Some drivers have said that hackers appear to have gotten into their Spark accounts and delivered orders using them. Walmart said last year that hackers accessed 200 Spark accounts, exposing drivers' personal information.

"We're always looking at new and innovative security technology," a Walmart spokesperson said when BI reached out about the requirement. "This is a pilot we are testing in certain markets, and we will evaluate the results before making any longer-term decisions."

Walmart started verifying Spark drivers' identities using a facial recognition feature in the app in late 2023. The tool asked users to take a series of selfies with their smartphones, which Walmart then compared with their ID photo. Spark drivers have to complete the check each time they log into the app, Walmart said last year.

The feature wasn't perfect, though. Some Spark drivers told BI that Walmart kicked them out of their Spark accounts even though their pictures and details matched their licenses. Walmart told BI at the time that the feature "was working as intended."

One Spark driver in Arkansas who completed the in-person verification said that she got a notification in the Spark app about it.

At the store, a Walmart employee took pictures of the driver's photo ID and asked her to take selfies using a company smartphone, she said. The driver asked not to be named in this article as she was not authorized by the company to speak about the matter.

"It really was not a big deal for me," the driver said. "It may be a big deal for somebody else if they're not who they say they are."

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• Starbucks booked $1.3 billion in profit in a Swiss subsidiary over a decade, a new report says.
• The move appeared to reduce Starbucks' tax bill in other countries.
• It's the latest example of companies using tax havens to avoid tax rates in the US and elsewhere.

A little-known Starbucks subsidiary in Switzerland appears to have played a big role in how much the coffee chain paid over the last decade in taxes, according to a new report.

On paper, Starbucks Coffee Trading Company, or SCTC, based in the Swiss Canton of Vaud, is responsible for sourcing unroasted coffee from countries like Colombia and Rwanda before it's used in beverages at Starbucks' cafés. It also oversees Starbucks' Coffee and Farmer Equity Practices program for ethical coffee sourcing.

According to a report released Saturday by the Centre for International Corporate Tax Accountability and Research, or CICTAR, there's also evidence that since 2015, the subsidiary has helped shift about $1.3 billion in Starbucks profits away from other countries where they would have been subject to higher tax rates.

The chain is hardly the only major company that books profits outside the United States, and the report's authors found no evidence that the company was doing anything illegal. But Starbucks' reputation for being conscious of its role in society contrasts with its use of tax loopholes, said Jason Ward, principal analyst at Australia-based CICTAR. The group is funded by trade unions as well as trusts and foundations.

"Starbucks is different in that it really does bank on its image of social responsibility," Ward told Business Insider.

Starbucks uses Switzerland-based SCTC to book the cost of the unroasted coffee beans, even though the beans don't appear to move through Switzerland, according to the report.

SCTC "then sells the exact same green coffee beans at a higher price to other entities in the Starbucks corporate structure," the report says. That markup was about 3% between 2005 and 2010, then rose to 18% between 2011 and 2014, CICTAR's report says.

CICTAR could not find "any significant change in business practices or underlying costs" that would justify the jump in profits, the report says.

"It's not like they're roasting coffee or researching the different types of beans or anything," Ward said. "There's nothing like that going on there."

In Switzerland, profits from those markups are taxed at "a significantly lower tax rate" than if they had been booked in the United States or other countries, according to the report.

While the exact tax rate that Starbucks pays in Switzerland isn't publicly known, US companies paid an average rate of 3.9% in the country, according to an analysis of IRS data by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, or ITEP. The US corporate tax rate is 21%.

More recently, between 2015 and 2021, SCTC has paid between $125 million and $150 million in dividends annually to another Starbucks subsidiary, Netherlands-based Starbucks Coffee EMEA B.V., according to the report. These payments do not appear to be taxed either upon leaving Switzerland or upon entering the Netherlands.

The report looked at financial filings for Starbucks subsidiaries around Europe to trace profits booked at SCTC.

In a response that CICTAR included on page 4 of the report, a Starbucks spokesperson said that the report's claims "fail to accurately reflect our business model and how different parts of our business contribute to the company's success."

"Starbucks pays appropriate and correct levels of tax in all jurisdictions in which it operates and proactively works with tax authorities to inform them of its business model and related tax implications," the spokesperson said.

A Starbucks spokesperson told BI that the company "is in full compliance with tax laws around the world" and had an effective global tax rate of about 24% last year. SCTC provides "high-quality coffee to meet our global demand" and includes farmer support centers in coffee-growing areas of the world.

"Switzerland has been a global hub for coffee trading for decades and SCTC is based there to help us access the world's best coffee trading talent," the spokesperson said.

Starbucks isn't the only company that looks abroad to minimize its tax obligations. A 2021 report from CICTAR looked at Uber's use of shell companies in the Netherlands to limit its tax bill, for instance.

Large companies and wealthy individuals store money in a variety of tax-haven countries, such as the Cayman Islands, since they charge less in taxes than their home countries — or none at all.

CICTAR's findings on Starbucks aren't surprising, said Matthew Gardner, senior fellow at ITEP.

"This is a thing that every company or every industry, companies in every industry that have lots of intangible assets are doing right now," he told BI.

Companies storing profits in tax havens — and the US government's responses to the strategy — goes back decades, he said.

A 2004 tax holiday, for example, allowed corporations to bring profits to the United States from overseas at a much-reduced tax rate. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, passed during President Donald Trump's first term, also contained provisions to bring more corporate profits back to the United States.

But many companies have continued using offshore tax havens, Gardner said. An ITEP analysis of IRS data from 2020 found that American-owned companies reported $390 billion in profits across 15 likely tax havens, including the Cayman Islands, Ireland, and Switzerland.

Large companies' tax avoidance ultimately increases the tax burden on other taxpayers, including individuals and small businesses, Gardner said. It can also lead governments to slash spending and cut programs, he said.

"Every way in which the revenue loss from these offshore profits can be paid for hurts the rest of us," he said.

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• President Donald Trump's tariffs are shaking up supply chains for everything from cars to tequila.
• Stew Leonard's, a family-owned grocery chain in the Northeastern US, is making changes in response.
• CEO Stew Leonard Jr. said he's trying to avoid passing higher costs to shoppers.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard's, a grocery store with eight locations in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

A lot of stuff we do is made fresh right here in-store.

We have two people making fresh guacamole every single day. We have somebody making fresh mozzarella balls every single day. We have a bakery where we're baking fresh breads and bagels every single day. So we do a lot of production on-site.

As far as tariffs go, I've talked to our suppliers in Mexico with avocados and beer and tequila, and I've talked to our suppliers in Canada. We get some tomatoes on the vine from Vancouver, and salmon is our biggest item from Canada. There's also lobsters, but it's not lobster season yet.

Basically, take your darts out for your dartboard because nobody that I've talked to, even the experts in the field, knows what's going to happen.

Throw a dart. Is this tariff going to last one day? Is it going to last a week? Is it going to last a month?

What we're scrambling to do is find alternate sources if there is an increase in the tariff. We're sitting here riding the market day by day. Only 4% of our sales are affected by the tariffs.

You've got to line these people up and let them know what's coming. Our Norwegian salmon supplier, we've already had discussions with them and said, "Hey, we may be doubling our order with you."

We did talk to our tequila supply importers. They bought in six to 12 months of inventory. They said to me, "Read my lips, we're not going to increase tequila prices." They've already got the product in the United States. We're going to hopefully be able to hold on the tequila price.

Our salmon producer said they may not even raise the price of Canadian salmon because, all of a sudden, now they're competing with Maine and Norway, which are not getting a tariff.

Now, avocados are a different problem because that's a perishable item.

We sell 2 million avocados a year. Right now, we have jumbo premium avocados in the store for $2.50 each. That is going to be going up 25% if tariffs take effect. We have about three days' supply of avocados.

If you go up 25% on them, that's $3.10. I'm not going over $2.99. The difference between $2.99 and $3.10 is probably a 20% reduction in sales.

I make fresh avocado a dip every single day in the store. I've got two people doing that. It's expensive for them to peel every single fresh avocado and use fresh lemon juice.

I'm charging $10 for a container of avocado dip over there. What am I going to do if I go to $10.49? Sales will go down 20%. I'm nervous about that one. I would say I'm going to have to eat some of the price increase.

You also have customers coming in saying, "I'm having a hard time at home. My auto insurance went up. I just went and filled my car up with gas or gut it serviced, and it was a lot more expensive." And they're complaining about just their own pocketbooks and wallets right now.

You've got to do everything you can to keep your prices sharp.

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• Kroger's ex-CEO forfeited more than $11 million in bonus and stock payments when he resigned.
• Rodney McMullen still had hundreds of millions in Kroger stock, according to the filings.
• Kroger cited McMullen's "personal conduct" in announcing his resignation on Monday.

The former CEO of Kroger forfeited more than $11 million when he resigned from the grocery chain this week following an investigation into his personal conduct.

McMullen left behind $11.2 million in a potential bonus as well as stock and options when he left the company, Kroger's SEC filings show.

Without that compensation, McMullen still owned 6.6 million shares of Kroger, worth roughly $417 million at Tuesday's closing price.

McMullen also had total compensation as CEO of $15.7 million in 2023, according to an SEC filing. In 2022, his compensation totaled $19.2 million.

Kroger said on Monday that McMullen had resigned after an investigation into his "personal conduct."

The company didn't provide more information on what McMullen did but said that some of his actions were "inconsistent with Kroger's Policy on Business Ethics." Kroger said that McMullen's actions weren't connected to other Kroger associates or the company's financial performance.

McMullen was appointed Kroger's CEO in 2014. For two years, he oversaw the chain's proposed $24.6 billion merger with Albertsons, which fell apart in December.

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• McDonald's CEO has three predictions for the fast-food industry in 2025.
• Chris Kempczinski talked about them in an Instagram video posted to his account.
• Kempczinski referenced protein, AI, and sauces.

McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski has some predictions for the fast-food industry this year.

Kempczinski shared three things he expects to see more of at fast-food restaurants, including McDonald's, in 2025. He commented in a video posted to his Instagram account last week.

"I love to sit with the team and make predictions about what we think is going to come in the year ahead," he said.

Here are the three things Kempczinski talked about:

McDonald's CEO predicts that diners will want more protein

"Protein is hot," Kempczinski said in his first prediction.

Many diners are looking to add protein to their diet, especially those trying to lose weight. People who are taking GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Ozempic often look for low-fat sources of protein, for instance.

McDonald's already serves several kinds of protein, from burgers to chicken sandwiches to the Filet-O-Fish, meaning that the chain is well-positioned to serve those customers, Kempczinski said in the video.

Kempczinski says fast-food restaurants will continue looking at AI

Fast food chains have spent years experimenting with AI. Some are moving ahead with bigger rollouts, such as using voice AI to take customers' orders at drive-thru lanes.

McDonald's pulled its own voice-AI ordering system from drive-thrus last year. But Kempczinski predicted that chains — including his own — will keep experimenting.

"We've got a number of teams looking at how we can use AI," Kempczinski said.

Sauces will be a focus for diners in 2025, Kempczinski says

One big theme in 2025 won't be about what's in the center of diners' plates but what kind of sauces they're using, Kempczinski said.

"Spicy is always in," he said. "I think you might see some honey or some sweet stuff."

McDonald's has gotten patrons excited about sauces before. In 2017, it brought back a limited amount of Szechuan McNugget sauce, first released in tandem with the Disney movie "Mulan" in the 1990s, after the animated series "Rick and Morty" referenced the sauce in an episode.

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• Kroger has abruptly replaced its CEO with an interim leader, the grocery chain said on Monday.
• Rodney McMullen resigned, and Ronald Sargent is taking over his role.
• The chain said it learned about conduct "inconsistent with Kroger's Policy on Business Ethics."

The grocery chain Kroger is replacing its longtime CEO after an investigation into his personal conduct, it said Monday.

Kroger said that it learned about conduct by Rodney McMullen that was "inconsistent with Kroger's Policy on Business Ethics."

"On February 21, the Board was made aware of certain personal conduct by Mr. McMullen and immediately retained outside independent counsel to conduct an investigation, which was overseen by a special Board committee," Kroger said.

No Kroger associates were involved in McMullen's conduct, Kroger said. It added that the behavior wasn't related to the company's financial performance.

McMullen has resigned from the CEO role, Kroger said. He was appointed Kroger's leader in 2014 and became chair of the company's board of directors the following year.

The company has appointed Ronald Sargent, a member of its board of directors who's a former CEO of Staples, as interim CEO and board chair while it searches for a permanent replacement. Mark Sutton will take over as the company's lead independent director.

Kroger is the largest supermarket chain in the US by sales. The company operates grocery stores under multiple names, including Harris Teeter and Fry's.

The company is expected to report fourth-quarter earnings on Thursday. It said it expects full-year identical sales excluding fuel to be at the high end of its guidance range and adjusted EPS to be "slightly above" the high end of its guidance.

McMullen started his first job at Kroger in 1978, when he worked part-time as a stocking clerk at a store in Lexington, Kentucky, according to Kroger.

He earned accounting degrees at the University of Kentucky in Lexington, where he has been honored as a distinguished alumnus. He was the first in his family to go to college, according to a 2014 profile by The Cincinnati Enquirer.

McMullen built his career at Kroger and held several different roles at the grocer, including as CFO from 1995 to 2000.

"He was a key player on every major decision after 1987 when he was just a kid," Bill Sinkula, Kroger's former CFO, told the Enquirer in the 2014 profile.

As CEO, he oversaw Kroger's growing online and delivery business and a rebrand of Kroger in 2019.

McMullen was also CEO when the nearly $25 billion proposed merger of Kroger and Albertsons fell apart after two years of attempts to win approval from regulators.

On a Reddit page for Kroger employees, many posts expressed surprise at McMullen's sudden departure and curiosity about what exactly led to his resignation.

"We NEED TO KNOW," one poster wrote.

A couple of posts pointed to Kroger's decision not to award McMullen a 2024 bonus or give him any unvested equity on his way out. Kroger confirmed those decisions in a filing Monday with the SEC. McMullen's total compensation as CEO was $15.7 million in 2023.

"Whatever it is, it definitely pissed the board off," one commenter wrote.

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• Restaurants are debating how to handle the egg crisis — both higher prices and shortages.
• One brunch chain is turning to pancakes, cost savings, and new sources of eggs as answers.
• The Broken Yolk Cafe isn't adding a per-egg surcharge, a move some other restaurants have made.

Ed Powers has spent lots of time thinking about eggs lately.

Powers is director of operations at the Broken Yolk Cafe, a chain of 40 brunch restaurants in the Western US. About 75% of the chain's product mix is eggs, he told Business Insider in an interview.

As the chain's name suggests, "any dish that we're selling or marketing generally has eggs in it," Powers said.

That means the recent egg shortage and run-up in egg prices is forcing the Broken Yolk Cafe to make some changes.

Six months ago, the Broken Yolk paid about $35 for a case of 15 dozen eggs. Now, the same thing costs as much as $140, Powers said.

"Our price has almost quadrupled if you do the numbers," Powers said. "It is crazy."

One major choice that restaurants are facing is whether to pass on higher egg costs to diners. The price of eggs spiked to a 10-year high in January, according to federal data.

Avian influenza has led to a decline in the number of egg-laying chickens in the US. As a result, restaurants and grocery stores have seen their costs increase — if they can get enough eggs to meet customer demand in the first place.

Some chains, such as Waffle House and Denny's, have added a per-egg surcharge to offset the rising cost of eggs.

Yet Powers and the Broken Yolk decided on other strategies to offset the cost.

One solution is offering more menu items that don't contain eggs. Powers said some of Broken Yolk's most recent promotions include pancakes and a wrap that uses plant-based chorizo.

It's also negotiating with suppliers to pay less for other items, such as glassware.

And while the Broken Yolk isn't adding a per-egg surcharge, it is planning to raise menu prices on some items that include eggs, Powers said.

But price is only half of the problem, Powers said. The other challenge is getting the eggs in the first place.

Broken Yolk's supplier hasn't been able to fill the chain's egg orders in full lately, Powers said. That's leading him to look for other ways of getting them.

One option he's considering is finding small farms that could supply eggs to nearby Broken Yolk locations.

Broken Yolk has a single restaurant in Idaho, for instance, and finding a farm nearby that could provide eggs to that location while complying with food safety rules would solve part of the supply problem. "It could help the inventory grow," he said.

It's an example of something that Powers and his supplier had no reason to consider last year. "But with the crisis, that's something we are playing with," he said.

Eggs are likely to remain expensive, with no end to the spread of avian flu in sight. Prices could rise 41% this year, an estimate from the US Department of Agriculture shows.

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• Tech leaders are spending more time in Washington, DC, these days, Keith Rabois said Friday.
• Rabois recently had a chance meeting with Mark Zuckerburg and Jensen Huang while in the capital.
• But that doesn't mean DC has become a great scene for founders and VCs, he said.

One month after Donald Trump's swearing-in, big names in tech appear to be spending more time in Washington, DC, according to venture capitalist Keith Rabois.

Many tech leaders, from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, attended Trump's inauguration last month.

But if a chance meeting that Khosla Ventures' Rabois had last week is any indication, some of them have kept coming back to the nation's capital.

"Without any pre-existing knowledge, I ran into Mark Zuckerberg and Jensen from Nvidia," he said at a conference on Friday, referring to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang. "That never would've happened in my entire life before in DC, like zero chance."

Rabois spoke onstage at the Venture in the Capital conference hosted at Georgetown University's McDonough School of Business. He previously lived in the Washington, DC, area while working as a lawyer and said he still visits to see family.

Rabois, a self-identified conservative, welcomed Trump's victory in November's election. He's known in the tech world for his early role at PayPal.

Lately, the nation's capital has been attracting more visits from big names in the tech world. Elon Musk has spent lots of time in DC over the past month as he oversees DOGE's efforts to cut government spending from a perch adjacent to President Donald Trump's administration.

Those kind of chance meetings with other high-profile figures can lead to new investment ideas or follow-ups that wouldn't have otherwise happened, Rabois said.

But that doesn't mean DC will become a hotspot for founders or venture capitalists looking to invest.

Being in DC is "unlikely to drive me to meet some undiscovered talent who's going to create the next iconic company," Rabois said.

"It definitely still is not where early-stage venture capitalists should be spending too much time," Rabois said.

The Bay Area remains the place for startups to get noticed by venture capitalists in the US, Rabois said.

During the pandemic, some venture capitalists left the Bay Area in California for other parts of the US, seeking a change of pace. Rabois himself moved to Miami and became an evangelist for the city, trying to convince others from Silicon Valley to make the move.

But the rise of AI, including the growth of Sam Altman's OpenAI, has pulled many founders and venture capital players back to the Bay, Rabois said on Friday.

"If anything saves the Bay Area, it's going to be this AI wave led by OpenAI," he said.

• Amazon announced Alexa+, its new voice assistant, on Wednesday.
• The company unveiled AI-powered features for Alexa+.
• Amazon has spent years trying to grow its Alexa business after early success.

Alexa just got a long-awaited AI upgrade.

Amazon unveiled Alexa+, its latest voice assistant, at an event Wenesday morning in New York City.

Among the additions are AI-powered features. The new Alexa can provide dinner recipes, text friends and family, and send out party invitations, among other things, Panos Panay, Amazon's senior vice president of devices and services, said at the event.

Alexa+ can also create bedtime stories for kids using generative AI, Amazon said. The assistant will also work with tens of thousands of partner companies for specific tasks, such as calling a car through a ride-hailing app or booking a restaurant reservation. Amazon has also reached licensing deals with news publishers to feature their content, BI reported.

The assistant will be free for Amazon Prime members. Outside of Prime, users will have to pay $19.99 a month for Alexa+. That's about the same cost as ChatGPT Plus.

Users will start to have access in the new few weeks, with Alexa+ hitting certain Echo Show devices in the coming months, Amazon said.

AI has also eliminated "precise 'Alexa' language," Amazon said in a rundown of the changes. The assistant now picks up on users' tone of voice. For example, on Wednesday, Alexa+ appeared to reassure Panay when he sounded nervous about being onstage with hundreds of people watching.

"Alexa+ learns from you and the more you use it, the more personalized it gets — understanding everything from your favorite entertainment to your family's dietary preferences, allergies, and weekly traditions," Amazon said.

Alexa+ is available on Echo devices with screens as well as through voice-only devices and a smartphone app, Amazon said.

Amazon has been working on a voice assistant that would have integrations with other companies, such as Uber and Ticketmaster, Business Insider reported last year.

But progress has been slow, BI reported. Teams working on the revisions previously wanted to have them ready in time for this past holiday season, but they have had to delay the launch until this year.

In tests, the new Alexa gave answers that were too long or didn't directly answer users' questions, BI reported.

Adding features that customers want to use, AI or otherwise, matters right now for Amazon's voice assistant business, especially as Apple works on improving its AI capabilities in tandem with its Siri voice assistant.

Amazon has faced slowing demand for Alexa despite early success last decade. It's not alone: Usage for Apple's Siri and Google Assistant has also declined since 2020, according to data from EMARKETER, a sister company of BI.

• Customers making false refund requests are a big problem for food delivery apps, per a new report.
• Diners often can often get their money back even when nothing is wrong with their order.
• That can lead to losses for the delivery apps.

Asking for a refund on your food delivery — even when there's not anything wrong with it — is a big problem for delivery services, according to a new report.

About 48% of consumer fraud on delivery apps involved "refund fraud," according to a report released Wednesday by Incognia, a fraud-prevention company. Incognia works with gig delivery apps, including Grubhub and Texas-based Favor, and analyzed instances it detected on the apps.

"You can say the food wasn't good, the food was cold, there was something missing," André Ferraz, the CEO and cofounder of Incognia, told Business Insider. "How do you verify these things? It's very difficult."

It's an ongoing issue. Telegram groups and TikTok videos show would-be fraudsters how to request refunds and set up new accounts when the old ones get shut down, CNBC reported last year. Some even use "r3fund" instead of the correct spelling to avoid getting deleted.

On many apps, customers can get their money back on a few orders in a row, Ferraz said. "But if you do that 10 times, then the platform will not allow you to ask for refunds," he said. "You're abusing the platform."

However, some particularly determined fraudsters can obtain multiple emails and phone numbers to open multiple accounts and keep requesting refunds, Ferraz said.

Fraudulent returns cost retailers across the board $103 billion in 2024, a report from fraud prevention company Appriss Retail and Deloitte found.

Some users also use promotions from the apps to make money, Incognia's report found. In some cases that Incognia analyzed, for instance, a single user used multiple email addresses to create new accounts, each of which got a discount on an order for new customers.

That made up the 48% of fraud that Incognia found on food delivery platforms. Often, the scams draw on money that the apps have earmarked for attracting and retaining new customers.

"This method of abuse can drain marketing campaign budgets, increase user acquisition costs, and distort growth metrics," Incognia's report reads.

Some delivery services say that they have ways of detecting these types of fraud.

Uber Eats' website says that the company takes "fraudulent behavior seriously" and it has "filters in place to monitor both customer and delivery person behavior."

"We will not make adjustments on suspicious refunds," the company says.

DoorDash last year started sending a four-digit number to some customers to prevent fraud. The customers are supposed to provide the PIN to the delivery worker when they arrive as a verification that they received the delivery.

While the "vast majority" of customers are honest, "there may be times when a consumer makes a report that turns out to be inaccurate or even more rarely makes a false report," DoorDash said at the time.

Still, keeping up with fraudsters can be difficult, Incognia's Ferraz said, since they often use new tactics and ever-changing contact information.

But there are ways of identifying who is likely making an honest request and whether accounts are legitimate. When someone creates an account on a delivery service, for instance, Incognia looks to see whether their device's location is near the address listed on their driver's license. If it is, that makes it more likely that the applicant is who they say they are, Ferraz said.

"You need to keep up with all the things that fraudsters are creating," he said.

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• Starbucks said it would lay off 1,100 corporate employees this week.
• The coffee chain said it would notify affected employees by midday Tuesday.
• CEO Brian Niccol is trying to turn around results at the Seattle-based chain.

Starbucks said it would lay off 1,100 corporate employees this week and halt hiring for hundreds of open roles.

Employees whose jobs are being eliminated will hear from Starbucks by midday Tuesday, the company said.

"We are simplifying our structure, removing layers and duplication and creating smaller, more nimble teams," CEO Brian Niccol said in a letter on Monday announcing the layoffs. "Our intent is to operate more efficiently, increase accountability, reduce complexity and drive better integration."

The company said employees at Starbucks' stores would not be affected by the layoffs.

Starbucks has 16,000 employees across its corporate offices and other areas of the business, such as roasting operations. It said that not all of those employees were on teams affected by the layoffs.

Starbucks has been seeking to rejuvenate sliding sales in the US, its main market. Niccol, who was named CEO in September, has said the company needs to prioritize the customer experience, including focusing more on baristas, whom the company calls "partners."

"I recognize the news is difficult," he said in the memo. "We believe it's a necessary change to position Starbucks for future success — and to ensure we deliver for our green apron partners and the customers they serve."

Starbucks has been making changes to its stores since Niccol joined the company.

Partners at stores are now encouraged to write notes to customers on their paper cups. Starbucks also rolled back its open-door policy and requires patrons to buy something in order to use the store's bathroom or get a cup of water.

Under Niccol, the company has also reduced the number of promotions it offers members of Starbucks' rewards program.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected] or via the encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501.

• Food delivery workers relied on tips for a majority of their gross pay last year, per a new study.
• Tips were also a major source of income for grocery delivery workers, according to Gridwise.
• Gig workers have said that pay from services like DoorDash and Uber Eats often isn't enough.

The person who delivers your restaurant order might be relying on your tips to make rent.

Food delivery drivers made 53.4% of their total earnings from tips on average last year, a report from data analytics company Gridwise published on Tuesday found.

The pay that companies such as DoorDash and Uber Eats offer to deliver orders can be as low as $2 or $3, gig workers have told Business Insider. That means that many delivery workers look to customers to make the deliveries they make profitable, said Ryan Green, CEO of Gridwise.

"It's relying on the consumer," Green told BI.

According to the report, tips represented 45.7% of the earnings of workers who delivered groceries. Ride-hailing drivers earned just 10.4% of their money from tips.

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Gridwise's report looked at several aspects of gig work, including gig workers' pay on each of the major ride-hailing and delivery apps. The company analyzed 171 million trips and $1.9 billion worth of gig worker earnings to compile its findings for 2024.

Uber declined to comment on Gridwise's finding. A company spokesperson told BI that Uber offers a suggested tip on food orders — most commonly 15% — though customers decide the amount. It also encourages customers to tip more during inclement weather, such as snow storms.

An Instacart spokesperson called Gridwise's conclusion "inaccurate and misleading." Instacart asks customers if they want to increase their tips when they give a shopper a five-star rating. Since 2022, the company has also offered to pay shoppers up to $10 when a customer takes their tip away after delivery.

DoorDash did not respond to a request for comment on the findings from BI.

Tips have long been a big focus for gig workers. Some have told BI that they decide which orders to take depending on how much the tip is. But that can be risky: Some drivers for Walmart's Spark delivery service said last year that customers sometimes take back their tips after their order arrives — a tactic that the workers call "tip baiting."

Other apps, including Instacart and DoorDash, have countered that practice by shortening the time that customers have to adjust their tip amount.

In late 2023, DoorDash started telling some customers that their orders might take longer to arrive if they didn't tip. A company spokesperson told BI at the time that DoorDash's gig workers can choose which orders they take.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another company as a gig worker and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter via encrypted messaging app Signal at 808-854-4501.

• Food companies are trying to cater to shoppers taking GLP-1 medications.
• Many people on Ozempic, Wegovy, and other drugs eat less and get full faster.
• Companies like Conagra and General Mills are responding with special frozen meals and soups.

Food companies behind everything from canned soup to frozen dinners are trying to win over a growing group: People who are eating less due to GLP-1 medications.

General Mills, Conagra, and other companies are launching new, smaller-portion products and adding labels aimed at people taking Ozempic, Wegovy, and similar weight-loss drugs. The goal is to keep grocery shoppers buying their product — even if they eat less of it.

However, some of their products don't involve a revolutionary new approach. They're items that people on a health kick who aren't on the drugs may already be choosing.

For example, Conagra, which makes Marie Callender's frozen food and Slim Jim beef jerky, now labels some of its Healthy Choice brand frozen meals "GLP-1 Friendly," CEO Sean Connolly said at the Consumer Analyst Group of New York's annual conference on Tuesday. The meals tend to be smaller portions, reflective of users' tendency to eat less, he said.

"That's a navigation aid or a wayfinder for consumers who are currently on GLP-1s," Connolly said.

The companies' actions are the food industry's latest response to the spread of the drugs.

Many people using GLP-1s feel full faster and have fewer cravings for salty or sugary foods. One study has suggested that medications like Ozempic lead people to drink less alcohol.

"They're actually eating more single-serve meals, more bites and appetizers, and more vegetables," Bob Nolan, Conagra's senior vice president of demand science, said during Conagra's presentation at the conference.

About 6% of consumers are taking a GLP-1 medication, Nolan said. The company expects that percentage to grow, thanks to advances such as GLP-1s that can be swallowed as a pill instead of injected and better insurance coverage for the medications.

General Mills, which makes Progresso canned soup, is now marketing a high-protein version to users.

"This year, we're targeting GLP-1 consumers and telling them how Progresso's protein and fiber benefits can fit seamlessly into their new routine," CEO Jeff Harmening said at the conference in a separate presentation on Tuesday. High-protein diets are also popular among many athletes — and ordinary people looking to tone up at the gym, perhaps.

General Mills has introduced other foods meant for Ozempic users, such as Betty Crocker brownie mixes with lower sugar.

• Starbucks is mulling a change to how customers get coffee when they order through the chain's app.
• Customers have been asking to choose a specific pickup time, CEO Brian Niccol said.
• Mobile ordering is an area Niccol is looking at as Starbucks attempts a turnaround.

Starbucks might soon ask you to choose a time to pick up your morning cup of coffee.

CEO Brian Niccol told The Wall Street Journal that the chain was considering the change to its mobile ordering system to help customers and baristas.

Right now, Starbucks' mobile app gives customers a pickup time — sometimes as little as a few minutes — when they place an order. Niccol said that often doesn't reflect when the customer can actually stop by to get their drink, especially if they aren't near a store when they order.

"When you mobile order, you'll get a message that says that the beverage will be ready in three minutes," he told the Journal. "But you physically can't get there in three minutes."

That leads to a mismatch between "when the customer wants it and when we should be making it," the CEO said.

He added that some Starbucks customers had been asking to choose when they retrieve their order. "The number-one request is actually 'Let me pick what time I can come pick up my beverage,'" he said.

Starbucks' mobile ordering system has been a sore spot for customers and for the employees who make their drinks.

Some store employees, whom Starbucks refers to as "partners," told Business Insider last fall that their locations were often overwhelmed by the number of mobile orders. They said that led to long wait times for customers as the partners struggled to prepare drinks and catch up.

Workers told BI that promotions for members of Starbucks' rewards program, especially those offering customers a discount if they ordered several drinks at once, contributed to the problem. Under Niccol, Starbucks has reined in the number of promotions it offers to rewards members.

Niccol became Starbucks' CEO in September. Since then, he has detailed a turnaround plan for the coffee chain aimed at reversing sales declines.

Niccol said this month that Starbucks' mobile ordering system "chipped away" at the chain's "soul." He argued that many baristas were too busy preparing drinks to chat with customers and provide other personalized services that Niccol wants the chain to be known for.

Niccol told the Journal he wanted to improve Starbucks' mobile ordering system over the next year.

"At a minimum, we will be a lot better than where we are today," he said.

Do you work at Starbucks and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected].

• Gig workers for Uber, Instacart, and other services made less money for their time in 2024.
• Even when delivery and ride-hailing drivers made more, their hours rose, too, a new report found.
• Gig workers have said their jobs have gotten more competitive and less lucrative in recent years.

Gig workers for Uber, Instacart, and other services made less money on average in 2024 — even as the number of hours that they worked rose, in some cases.

Uber hide-hailing drivers saw their earnings for 2024 fall 3.4% on average to $513 a week, according to a study released Tuesday by data analytics company Gridwise. At the same time, Uber drivers worked 0.8% more hours in 2024.

Lyft drivers, meanwhile, worked 5.4% fewer hours in 2024, but saw their pay decline at a faster clip of 13.9% to $318 a week.

Workers who shop and deliver orders for Instacart saw their pay for the year decline 8% to $194. Their hours worked fell 4.9%.

"Drivers are earning less across all of the platforms," Ryan Green, the CEO of Gridwise, told Business Insider.

Meantime at DoorDash, gross weekly earnings rose 4.8% to $240 in 2024. Hourly earnings for those on the app fell, though, as the number of hours that gig workers spent on the app rose 5.2%.

Amazon Flex workers were in a similar situation. Their earnings soared 18.1% to $413 a week — just as their hours increased 20.4%.

Uber Eats workers made $178 a week, or 5.1% more than 2023. Average worker hours on the app rose 2.1%, though.

The only app where workers earned significantly more money for the same or less work was Favor, a service owned by Texas supermarket H-E-B that delivers online orders for the chain. There, workers saw their pay rise 3.4% to $155 a week in 2024 as their hours worked fell 13.1%.

In response to the report, an Uber spokesperson told BI that its drivers make more than $30 an hour on average.

A Lyft spokesperson referred BI to comments that CEO David Risher made this month on the company's earnings call, including that ride-hailing drivers on the app earned a collective $9 billion in 2024. That was "the highest amount of combine driver earnings on our platform ever," Risher said.

An Instacart spokesperson called the report's findings "inaccurate and misleading."

"Shopper earnings remain steady across the Instacart platform, and we continue to hear from shoppers that Instacart creates rewarding, flexible earnings opportunities that allow them to earn on their own time and their own terms," the spokesperson said.

DoorDash declined to comment. Amazon and Favor did not respond to requests for comment.

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Gridwise obtained the data for the report using its own app, which it markets to gig workers to track their earnings and expenses. The company analyzed 171 million trips and $1.9 billion worth of gig worker earnings documented by the app to compile its findings for 2024.

The report also found that the average restaurant delivery worker relied on tips for a majority — 53.4% — of their earnings. For grocery delivery workers, 45.7% of earnings came from tips.

Tips were much less significant for ride-hailing drivers, Gridwise found. Gratuities made up just 10.4% of earnings, per the report.

Gig workers have told BI that claiming good-paying rides and orders on the apps has gotten more competitive. Some workers have even set up their own businesses to offer rides or deliver restaurant food in hopes of making more money than they do on the apps.

Consumers, meanwhile, told Gridwise that they plan to keep using ride-hailing and delivery services despite the lingering effects of inflation on many items in Americans' monthly budgets.

Majorities of the 1,000 customers surveyed by Gridwise in January said that they thought prices on both ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft as well as grocery delivery apps like Instacart were "reasonable."

"They talk about being price-sensitive, but their actions reflect differently," Green said.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another service that uses gig workers and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Some Uber and Lyft drivers are creating cooperatives.
• The drivers own the cooperatives, which are more transparent and increase earnings, they say.
• Gig workers say that claiming rides and making money has gotten harder.

San Diego ride-hailing driver Lee Sperry has spent the last year pushing for better treatment from Uber and Lyft as a member of the advocacy group San Diego Drivers United.

But lately, he's asking: Why not create something that drivers could use instead of Uber or Lyft?

Sperry and several hundred fellow drivers in San Diego are exploring forming a cooperative. Instead of driving for the established apps, Sperry said, they would set up their own app, elect leaders to manage it, and create transparent policies around issues such as deactivating drivers.

"The co-op would be very different in the way it operates, in the way that we handle how the app works and how the pricing goes, how the driver gets paid, how the hiring goes, who makes the decisions," he told Business Insider in an interview.

Many ride-hailing drivers are looking for ways to make money outside the apps as their earnings fall and claiming rides gets harder. Some have created their own black-car businesses, for instance.

Others, like Sperry, are creating these ride-hailing cooperatives, a nonprofit model that they say could yield better returns for drivers.

In some cities, driver co-ops already exist.

In New York City, The Drivers Cooperative has been offering rides since 2021.

Another, Drivers Co-op Colorado, launched last September. The co-op has about 16,000 drivers, and it guarantees them 80% of each fare that riders pay. Many ride-hailing drivers say they get paid less than half of the fare on other apps. The co-op's promise also represents a greater share than Lyft, which says it pays drivers 70% of the weekly rider payments they earn after fees.

Phred Riggs, one of the co-op's drivers, said that he has seen his pay decline for the same rides on Uber over the last few years.

A ride between downtown Denver and Denver International Airport — a trip of about 21 miles that takes about 30 minutes with light traffic — used to pay drivers about $35, he said. These days, the same journey grosses about $16. Through the co-op's set prices, which don't surge based on demand, a driver can earn $33.60 for the same trip.

To start driving for the co-op, Riggs and other drivers had to undergo a background check, a requirement that Uber and Lyft also have. Unlike the big apps, though, the co-op also requires potential drivers to attend an orientation session. They also have the option to buy a stake in the co-op for $200.

The co-op requires drivers to use dash cams, which can provide evidence in case either a passenger or driver claims that something bad happened during a ride. It has a committee to review those cases and decide whether to issue a warning or dismiss the driver from its app, said Isaac Chinyoka, the co-op's general manager.

Uber, Lyft, and other gig work apps often deactivate drivers' accounts without providing a clear justification or a transparent investigation. Some drivers have told BI that following up with the companies or requesting arbitration to get their accounts reactivated can be a complicated process, especially without being able to talk to someone face-to-face.

This co-op has a physical office in Denver where drivers can speak face-to-face with leadership, Chinyoka said.

"We don't just take off the driver immediately without going through that due process," he told BI. "We sit down with the driver. They know."

Lyft told BI that its drivers can take on other employment, including "services similar to rideshare services to other companies," under its terms of service for independent contractors.

"Drivers are independent contractors and have the freedom to work however and whenever they want — for example, by driving for other ride-share platforms," an Uber spokesperson told BI.

Luis Arias, a ride-hailing driver and another member of San Diego Drivers United, said that he hopes a co-op would be able to tackle a variety of issues beyond pay, such as combating drivers who buy and use accounts in other peoples' names to offer rides.

"It's not just about how bad we're getting screwed about the pay rates, but now it is a safety concern issue as well," he told BI.

Do you work for Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, Instacart, or another company as a gig worker and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Fast food chains from McDonald's to Wendy's are still offering value options.
• Customers are buying them — and often adding other things to their orders.
• Fast-food restaurants are planning more deals as inflation ticks up again.

Major fast-food chains keep rolling out new value options. Early signs suggest the strategy might be working.

Restaurants from McDonald's to Taco Bell have continued offering deals aimed at budget-conscious customers so far in 2025. Many started beefing up their value offerings in 2024 when some diners started looking for alternatives to traditional fast food, such as Chili's.

In earnings calls over the past two weeks, many food companies said that the deals are pulling in customers — and getting them to add other items to their orders as well.

McDonald's $5 value meal, which it introduced last summer as a limited-time offer, became a full-time part of the chain's value meal in January. CEO Chris Kempczinski said in an earnings call on Monday that people who order the deal spend an average of $10 at McDonald's after they add other items.

"It's doing what we were hoping for when we launched that," he said.

McDonald's new value menu also allows patrons to purchase some items for full price, such as a Sausage McMuffin or a McChicken, for full price, then get a second one for $1. That offering has performed in-line with the chain's expectations, Kempczinski said.

Taco Bell's $7 Luxe Box was "one of the most compelling value offerings in the industry," David Gibbs, CEO of parent company Yum! Brands, said on an earnings call last week. The deal includes a chalupa, taco, burrito, chips, nacho cheese, and a fountain drink.

Last month, Wendy's launched a 2 for $7 deal, which allows customers to pick two items from a lineup of a burger, two chicken sandwiches, and nuggets for $7. The deal ends in March.

The chain is also planning to offer new options through its Biggie Bag option, which includes a sandwich, nuggets, fries, and a drink for $5. It was one of the offerings that helped drive Wendy's average order amount higher for the fourth quarter, the company said in its earnings.

"Obviously, consumers are still looking for value," CEO Kirk Tanner said on a call on Thursday. "That's going to be an important part of our strategy" for 2025, he added.

Value deals could become even more important this year if inflation starts creeping up again.

On Wednesday, fresh federal data showed that the consumer price index rose faster than expected. The food portion of the index also increased more than estimated.

Even if Wednesday's increase turns out to be a one-off, many consumers are still feeling the pinch of food prices that have remained high for years. Catering to them remains a goal for the chains in 2025.

Do you work at McDonald's, Wendy's, or another fast-food restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]

• Wendy's is expanding its use of voice AI to take orders at its drive-thrus.
• The chain will have the technology at as many as 600 restaurants by the end of 2025.
• Voice AI has messed up some customers' orders, though Wendy's CEO says it's getting better.

Hundreds of Wendy's drive-thrus will use AI to take orders by the end of 2025, the fast-food chain's CEO said Thursday.

Wendy's will have the technology at 500 to 600 restaurants by the end of the year, CEO Kirk Tanner said. The chain started testing the AI voice assistant in 2023 and currently uses it at about 100 restaurants, he said. Wendy's has just under 6,000 restaurants in the US.

Tanner personally tests the voice AI a few times a week at a location near Wendy's headquarters, he told analysts during Wendy's fourth-quarter earnings call on Thursday. Wendy's is working with Google Cloud on the ordering assistant, which the companies call FreshAI.

"It gives customers the opportunity to build their orders," Tanner said. "It understands what to ask for, and the accuracy definitely is improving."

Accuracy has been one area of concern for restaurants that have used voice AI for ordering.

McDonald's stopped testing a voice AI feature at some drive-thrus last year after some customers showed that it got their orders wrong. The company said at the time that "a voice ordering solution for drive-thru will be part of our restaurants' future."

If the roll-out at Wendy's this year goes well, that could be "a real strong proof point" for adding voice AI to Wendy's entire store network, Tanner said.

"It's got a bright future, and we're moving forward," he said of the technology.

Yum! Brands, the parent company of Taco Bell, has also broadened its use of voice AI at drive-thrus over the last year. In November, CFO Chris Turner said the company had used the technology on two million orders.

At the time, 300 Taco Bell stores were using voice AI, Turner said. Yum! did not immediately respond to a request for an update on the test from Business Insider.

Do you work at McDonald's, Wendy's, or another fast-food restaurant and have a story idea to share? Reach out to this reporter at [email protected]