Woman gets interview with Taco Bell. Then she gets a message from its AI

It's no secret that the current job market is brutal.

With entry-level jobs becoming scarcer, job hunts becoming longer and more expensive, and recruiters receiving an overwhelming number of job applications, things seem grim across the board.

Now, with the advent of AI, new challenges are arising. And one woman is going viral for facing such a challenge herself.

‘Thank you so much for wasting my time'

Content creator Abby (@yappyabbyy) posted a video recorded in the driver's seat of her car. In it, she detailed a recent job application experience she'd had. The video, which features the text “Taco Bell, what the [expletive]?” overlaid onto it, has since accumulated more than 2.1 million views.

“Did you know that if you have an interview with Taco Bell, after your interview, an AI bot will message you?” Abby said. “AI Bella. She'll message you.”

Abby said the AI chatbot, “Bella,” reached out with good news and instructions.

“You're hired,” Abby said, quoting the bot. “You got the job. Your first day is July 1st. Fill out all this information, and a manager will contact you shortly.”

Believing that she got the job, Abby waited for a manager to reach out, but no one did. She did not receive any follow-up correspondence, so she went into the Taco Bell location to ask questions.

“The manager hides in the back and sends the manager below her while she talks about you,” Abby relayed. “And he says, ‘So, you're not hired. That was the AI bot.'”

Abby said she just “said ‘okay' and left,” but she questioned how such a mix-up was even possible.

“Thank you so much for wasting my time,” Abby said, concluding her video. “What the [expletive]? Why is this a possibility? Why do you have an AI bot that can hire people and not actually hire them?”

@yappyabbyy I just got kicked out and fired within the same two weeks and I think I had one thing to actually look forward too. Turns out I'd been waisting time whe I could've been out looking for other jobs. Idek what to do other than make a tiktok and hope it somehow blows up(it won't) and someone else magically is hiring in my area or something@tacobell ♬ Classic classical gymnopedie solo piano(1034554) – Lyrebirds music

Does Taco Bell use AI in its hiring process?

A few self-identified Taco Bell employees chimed in on Abby's video. They offered their thoughts on her hiring mix-up. One viewer said that Taco Bell's incorporation of AI into hiring workflows has complicated the process.

“As a manager for tacobell… A.I sets up interviews and hires people without our knowledge sometimes,” the viewer wrote. “So then someone will walk in for there first day or whatever and we had no idea they were even hired because the A.I did it and then it turns into a whole thing.”

But another viewer said that the mistake couldn't have been made by AI at all.

“As a taco bell employee. They have to hit hire and send the onboarding to you through Bella,” the viewer commented. “It isn't ai generated. Yes the application is ai but we would physically have to hire you through it.”

Multiple Taco Bell applicants have taken to Reddit to share their accounts of encountering AI in the hiring process. One expressed stress at an AI bot being in charge of scheduling interview times. Another reported actually being interviewed by a bot, only to be rejected. A third said the bot brought them, along with “4 other applicants,” in for an interview, only to be told by a human manager that “Taco Bell hasn't been hiring for months” and this mistake “has been happening frequently.”

Yahoo! News also recently reported that Taco Bell has started replacing human drive-thru workers with AI at certain locations, and Forbes reported in 2024 that Taco Bell franchises, along with Dairy Queen and KFC locations, were using AI to track human workers' productivity and allocate bonuses.

Buzz News has reached out to Taco Bell via email, as well as Abby via TikTok comment.