Yesterday, I argued on a podcast that renters still want a human. This morning, McDonald's backed me up. The Wall Street Journal reports that McDonald's, ten years into kiosks, is retraining more than two million people to say "Enjoy your meal!" and check on you in the lobby. Workers no longer have to ask if you're using the app. Burger King wants the counter staffed again. People like people. Shocking, I know. Back in 2024, McDonald's pulled IBM's voice ordering out of 100-plus stores after the viral videos of it putting bacon on ice cream. At Taco Bell, a prankster asked the AI drive-thru for 18,000 cups of water, reportedly to break it and reach a human. The system froze until staff stepped in. I've lost count of my AI subscriptions, and AI wins one fight hands down. Speed to lead. A renter goes down the Google results and calls the first complex and gets voicemail, so she calls the next one, and they pick up, and they tour her that afternoon, and she signs a lease before you ever call her back. Your missed call turned into a missed lease! HBR audited 2,241 companies in 2011. The ones that responded within an hour were nearly 7 times as likely to qualify the lead. 23% never responded at all. Call-tracking vendors say 44% to 60% of leasing calls go unanswered. Those vendors sell AI answering, so salt to taste. I once called 22 painting contractors. Two called back. The other 20 will never find out if they were the best painter in town. So let the AI pick up at 11 p.m. on a Sunday. Then hand the renter to a person. A good leasing agent knows where to get the best burrito in town and where her friends go on a Friday night, because she's lived it. An AI can know the same burrito place. It has never eaten there. We lease from people we like. Munger put Liking/Loving Tendency second on his list of 25 causes of human misjudgment. We favor people, and even products merely associated with people we like. It runs in reverse too. Carolyn Blue, a lifelong McDonald's fan in the Journal piece, now eats at Arby's and Chick-fil-A. She misses the fries. "We just won't go back," she says. Same fries. She can't stand ordering them from a screen. Gartner surveyed 5,728 customers. 64% would rather companies didn't use AI in customer service. Top worry: it gets harder to reach a human. Use AI to get the renter to your best person faster. Use it to hide your people, and sooner or later somebody asks your bot for 18,000 waters. Link to the WSJ piece is in the comments.