McDonald's Making Major Change To The Customer Experience With This Innovation

McDonald's has entered a strategic partnership with IBM to develop and deploy artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will help the fast-food giant automate its drive-thru lanes. According to the companies' joint statement about the partnership, the agreement will see IBM acquire McD Tech Labs which was created to advance employee and customer-facing innovations following McDonald's 2019 acquisition of Apprente. The IBM/McDonald's partnership will "accelerate McDonald's efforts to provide an even more convenient and unique customer and crew experience." The current technology was tested this summer at a handful of McDonald's locations in Chicago and according to the chain saw "substantial benefits" for both customers and staff, though with a roughly 85 percent accuracy does require some refinement. According to McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski, IBM's AI expertise thus makes them the "ideal partner" for the fast-food chain.