Bojangles' AI drive-thru: what the chain and Hi Auto have said about Bo-Linda

Bojangles' drive-thru AI is called Bo-Linda, and Hi Auto supplies it. Bojangles' own page says it runs in more than 450 restaurants and takes orders in English and Spanish. Hi Auto says it launched in June 2023. Nearly every performance figure comes from the chain's executives or from Hi Auto, and the figures count different things.

Bojangles has been privately held since it agreed in November 2018 to be taken private by Durational Capital Management and The Jordan Company, so there are no earnings calls to quote. What it has said comes from press releases, its own website and interviews with trade press. Our chain tracker puts Bojangles next to other chains in one line, and our bilingual drive-thru guide covers how to test Spanish at your own lane. This page collects each Bojangles and Hi Auto statement with its date, then shows what an operator can use.

What have Bojangles and Hi Auto said, and when?

Each row gives the date of the statement, who made it and where. Every figure comes from Bojangles or Hi Auto, including those given in trade interviews.

Date	Source	What was said
June 2023	Hi Auto release, August 2025	Bo-Linda was introduced at Bojangles in June 2023
January 2024	Bojangles release	New Genesis prototype with dual drive-thru lanes, and a staffing model with outside order-takers for the drive-thru
July 23, 2024	Restaurant Dive, on a Hi Auto release	Rollout to hundreds of company and franchised stores after roughly 50; Hi Auto claimed the tool was accurate 95% of the time
July 24, 2024	Restaurant Business interview with CIO Richard Del Valle	About 200 of more than 800 stores; about 3% of orders passed to an employee; the drive-thru worker's load cut by a third
February 2025	Bojangles franchising blog	Takes orders with more than 96% accuracy without human intervention; "currently operating in over 20 of our restaurants"
July 28, 2025	Bojangles release	Spanish at the drive-thru at more than 400 locations; roughly 200 Spanish orders a week; Spanish on the app and website systemwide and on kiosks at about 35 locations
August 4, 2025	Hi Auto release	Guests can switch between English and Spanish, even mid-sentence; Hi Auto claims 96% order accuracy; no new hardware needed
September 18, 2025	Hi Auto release	Bojangles named Hi Auto its supplier of the year; Bo-Linda live in more than 415 restaurants
December 4, 2025	Hi Auto release on a Global Payments Genius conference talk	Nearly 500 locations; order completion around 93% and accuracy above 96, per Hi Auto
September 20, 2026	Franchise Update interview with Del Valle	452 of more than 800 stores, 280 of them company-owned; a person steps in on 1 to 2% of orders; franchisees are not required to use it
No date on page	Bojangles' Bo-Linda page	Available in 450+ restaurants; takes orders 96+% of the time with no human intervention; speaks Spanish

How many Bojangles restaurants use Bo-Linda?

The latest dated count is 452, from the September 2026 Franchise Update interview. With 280 of those company-owned, the other 172 are franchised stores. In January 2025 Bojangles listed 266 company-operated and 561 franchised restaurants, 827 in all. Measured against that older total, 452 stores would be about 55% of the chain.

The counts do not all fit one timeline. The February 2025 franchising blog says "over 20" restaurants, seven months after Del Valle told Restaurant Business about 200. It may be text written early in the rollout and never updated. None of the sources says whether a store counts from its first test day or from full use.

What do the performance figures count?

Several kinds of figure appear, and they measure different things. Our guide to AI drive-thru accuracy figures explains each kind across vendors.

Figure	Who says it	What it seems to count
About 3% of orders passed to a person (2024); 1 to 2% (2026)	Del Valle, in trade interviews	Orders where a crew member stepped in
96+% of orders taken with no human intervention	Bojangles' Bo-Linda page	Orders the AI finished alone
Order completion around 93%	Hi Auto, December 2025	Orders sent to the POS without staff intervention, per the definition on Hi Auto's product page
95% accurate (2024); 96% order accuracy (2025); accuracy above 96 (December 2025)	Hi Auto releases	Orders sent to the POS with every item and customization right, per the same page
97% completion, against 73% at Wendy's and 70% at Taco Bell	Hi Auto, citing the 2025 Intouch Insight study	Hi Auto's reading of a mystery-shop study

Three checks help. First, a 1 to 2% intervention rate implies 98 to 99% of orders finished without help, which does not match a 93% completion rate, so the two must count different orders. Second, Hi Auto's product page says a trained human supervisor steps in when the system is unsure. Ask whether an order that a remote supervisor finishes counts as one with no human intervention. Third, Intouch's own 2025 press release reports 120 AI orders at three chains without naming them, and scored AI lanes 83% accurate overall. The chain-by-chain figures appear only in Hi Auto's release.

How does Spanish ordering work at Bojangles?

Restaurant Business reported in July 2025 that Bo-Linda switches from English to Spanish when the guest prompts it. Hi Auto says guests can also move between the two mid-sentence. Bojangles' July 2025 release put Spanish drive-thru ordering at more than 400 locations and counted roughly 200 Spanish orders a week in the markets that had it first. The same release extended Spanish to the website and app systemwide and to kiosks at about 35 locations.

Del Valle told Franchise Update that Bo-Linda can answer menu questions, such as which dipping sauces there are, and recommends a featured product as it greets the guest.

What did Bojangles change to make it work?

• Menu items for odd requests. In 2024 Del Valle said the team collected about 300 new price lookups during the pilot, after a guest asked for a hollowed-out biscuit. In 2026 he said Bojangles added around 550 unique menu items in the first month so the AI could ring up anything a guest might ask for. The two counts come from different interviews two years apart.
• A person on site in each new market. Bojangles posted a staffer in the restaurant to flag unusual requests whenever it entered a new market, per Restaurant Business.
• Crew still on the headset. Managers and drive-thru workers hear every order and can pick up where the AI left off.
• A POS link built for speed. Hi Auto says Bojangles' system adds items one by one to the drive-thru screen and kitchen screens as the guest speaks, through Global Payments' Genius POS, and attaches a picture of the car to each order for double lanes.
• Franchisee choice. Bojangles has not required franchisees to use it, and invites hesitant owners to watch it in a store.

What can a smaller operator take from Bojangles?

1. List the requests your crew types as free text or open-price items. Each one needs a real POS item before an AI can ring it up.
2. Ask any vendor which figure it quotes: completion, intervention or accuracy, and how each is counted. Get the definitions in writing.
3. Keep a crew member able to hear and take over every order, and test the takeover before live cars.
4. Plan for a manager or vendor person on site for the first days, logging each order the AI could not finish.
5. If you add Spanish, decide how guests switch and put that in the greeting.
6. Ask how the AI reaches your POS and whether items reach the kitchen before the order is finished.

Our one-lane pilot worksheet turns these into pass and fail rules, and our guide to AI drive-thru for one store covers which vendors sell to single locations.

Where does Maple fit?

Maple makes a drive-thru ordering unit that stands beside the existing speaker post, takes orders in many languages, shows a live cart on its screen and writes the order into the POS. Guests can ask for a person at any time, and a one-press kill switch hands the lane back to the crew. It is in early access with a small number of restaurants and is priced per unit, with no public price.

Published by Maple, which sells an early-access drive-thru ordering unit. This AI-assisted guide combines Bojangles' press releases and web pages, Hi Auto's releases, and reporting by Restaurant Business, Restaurant Dive, Nation's Restaurant News and Franchise Update, with an original timeline and figure table. It does not verify any Bojangles or Hi Auto figure or report a test of Bo-Linda.