Will Ronald McDonald soon receive support from AI? Innovations at the burger giant. (Heorshe; background photo/Adobe Stock)
The restaurant chain McDonald’s is entering into a collaboration with Google, a recent report announced Press release. As part of this, not only will thousands of branches be equipped with Google Cloud, but artificial intelligence will also be used.
The report provides little information about exactly how this development will affect customers on site in the restaurant. However, use on McDonald’s self-service terminals or the catering chain’s mobile app is conceivable. However, the Wall Street Journal wants to know more, as this article will show you.
Find out what the collaboration could mean for customers below.
A notice: It remains to be seen what impact the partnership will have here in Europey.
What does McDonald’s say about its collaboration with Google?
What McDonald’s writes in its press release: The partnership is intended to “use Google Cloud technology in thousands of restaurants worldwide,” it says. Furthermore, “the fast food giant plans to use a wide range of hardware, data and AI technologies from Google Cloud.” The information is very general.
The press release is silent about how the collaboration with Google will have a practical impact on McDonald’s customers. Instead, they say they want to “implement innovations more quickly and create even better experiences for customers, restaurant teams and employees.”
Brian Rice, the executive vice president of McDonald’s, is quoted as saying:
»Connecting our restaurants worldwide to millions of data points in the digital ecosystem means that […] “The restaurants will be easier to operate and, most importantly, the overall experience for our customers and our staff will be even better.”
AI at McDonald’s for ordering by car: One obvious thought is that AI will be used in McDonald’s drive-through kiosks. In addition to the famous fast food chain with the golden “M”, Google also works with the US fast food chain “Wendy’s”.
Im Trap by Wendy’s Work is underway to adapt the language model of artificial intelligence to the challenging conditions when the window pane is rolled down. When ordering via car, background noise such as noisy children, a switched-on car radio or traffic can make speech recognition difficult.
However, those responsible at Wendy’s are confident. The Wall Street Journal says:
“They won’t know you’re talking to anything other than a real person.”
AI as support for employees: Bloomberg wants to know more. Accordingly, McDonald’s is likely to use Google’s technology for a chatbot called “Ask Pickles”. This is intended to support the employees. This should include: Providing manuals or instructions for cleaning the ice maker and other equipment.
Another area of application could be McDonald’s mobile app. How exactly this will work from the customer’s perspective is not yet known.
Will part of McDonald’s workforce soon be supported by AI – and how obvious is the use of language models in restaurant branches? Do you think the cooperation between the two giant companies – from very different industries – could soon change the way you order at McDonald’s or other restaurants? Please let us know your opinion in the comments.
