McDonald's wants to automate its drive-thrus with A.I.

What would you like to order?" Those are the words you might hear a robot say upon pulling up to a McDonald's drive-thru in the near future. That's because the fast-food company recently agreed to acquire a Silicon Valley-based company called Apprente, which aims to use artificial intelligence to automate the drive-through process. McDonald's hopes using artificial intelligence will not only reduce service time, but also boost profits -- customers might feel less anxious and more inclined to spend when they're dealing with a robot. The company said it might also use Apprente's technology in self-service kiosks someday, and that it plans to form a new group with Apprente employees called McD Tech Labs, which will help to automate drive-thrus. Apprente's system seems unique compared to other voice recognition systems, which normally use "speech-to-text" models that transcribe what a person says and then try to decipher the meaning.