Whatever your opinion of the fast food giant McDonalds is, it is undeniably an impressive empire they’ve built over the years. McDonalds is constantly innovating their menus, like launching their premium burgers, but also the way they do business, such as moving towards an 95% franchise construction (Forbes, 2019).
And now, to keep up with their successes they’ve started to invest in tech. It recently announced their third tech deal of 2019 with the acquisition of voice AI company Apprente. Their technology allows for direct translation of speech, skipping the transcribing function which other AI’s mainly rely on (Wired, 2019).
Earlier this year they reportedly invested over $300 million in a deal with Dynamic Yield, a startup focused on personalised data. All of this is a part of McDonalds new tech-strategy and is based around the goal of their newly formed McD Tech Labs, where they are working the technology infrastructure for faster drive throughs (Forbes, 2019).
How far away is a fully automatic McDonalds store?
Not only is McDonalds focusing on improving their Drive through experience through technology, they’re also testing technology solutions in the kitchens. In one of the McDrive restaurants in Chicago, they are not only testing voice recognition… After an AI has given meaning to your spoken order, a robot in the kitchens will throw your chicken nuggets and fries in the fryer. Both technologies are still being tested to ultimately reduce the customer waiting times (The Wall Street Journal, 2019).
But how long will it be before the technology is sophisticated enough to roll out worldwide and work with picky and demanding customers that want their McChicken sandwich “with the bun and the chicken separate” (or any of the other strangest McDonalds orders mentioned by Business Insider, 2019). We will have to see whether it will be enough to truly transform McDonalds into a FoodTech company, and stay ahead of the more fancy, healthy or sustainable competitors.
References
Forbes, 2019:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2019/02/04/mcdonalds-reports-good-results-to-continue-growth-in-2019/
Wired, 2019:
https://www.wired.com/story/mcdonalds-acquires-apprente-voice-ai/?utm_source=morning_brew
The Wall Street Journal, 2019:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/mcdonalds-tests-robot-fryers-and-voice-activated-drive-throughs-11561060920
Business Insider 2019:
https: //www.businessinsider.nl/mcdonalds-menu-strange-orders-2018-5
Coverfoto:
https://www.facebook.com/paulissuperawesome?hc_location=ufi&pnref=story
