Tenyx, an AI technology company, announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding to grow its research and development team and further product development. Investors include AME Cloud Ventures, Cota Capital, Morado Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Point72 Ventures and StageOne Ventures, as well as notable angel investors John Lilly, Georges Harik and Jaan Tallinn. Tenyx is led by the founding team behind Apprente, which developed the world's first voice-based AI solutions to automate the order-taking process at drive-thru restaurants. Apprente was acquired by McDonald's Corporation and subsequently by IBM. Tenyx' seasoned leadership team includes Dr. Itamar Arel, a former professor of AI and CEO at Apprente, and Prof. Ron Christly, an established AI researcher and head of the Cognitive Science program at Sussex University.

Tenyx, an AI technology company, today announced it has raised $15 million in seed funding to grow its research and development team and further product development. Investors include AME Cloud Ventures, Cota Capital, Morado Ventures, Pathbreaker Ventures, Point72 Ventures, and StageOne Ventures, as well as notable angel investors John Lilly, Georges Harik, and Jaan Tallinn. Tenyx is led by the founding team behind Apprente, which developed the world's first voice-based AI solutions to automate the order-taking process at drive-thru restaurants. Apprente was acquired by McDonald's Corporation and subsequently by IBM. Tenyx' seasoned leadership team includes Dr. Itamar Arel, a former professor of AI and CEO at Apprente, and Prof. Ron Christly, an established AI researcher and head of the Cognitive Science program at Sussex University.

Customers using the drive-thru at 10 McDonald's locations in Chicago are not ordering burgers and fries with human employees, but machines using artificial intelligence. The fast-food chain is testing voice recognition software at select locations that has shown to be 85 percent accurate – but 20 percent of orders need human intervention, CNBC reports. CEO Chris Kempczinski made the announcement Wednesday, but also explained that the software may not roll out to all of the fast-food chain's 14,000 locations. 'Now there's a big leap from going to 10 restaurants in Chicago to 14,000 restaurants across the U.S., with an infinite number of promo permutations, menu permutations, dialect permutations, weather -- and on and on and on,' Kempczinski said, per CNBC. The technology, according to McDonald's, aims to shorten the wait at the drive-thru by a yet to-be determined amount of time.

When McDonald's spent over $300 million on big-data-crunching startup Dynamic Yield earlier this year, the move came as something of a surprise. Today the Golden Arches announced the acquisition of Apprente, a voice AI system focused on fast-food ordering. It's a niche, but it just paid off. Specific terms of the deal have not been disclosed. But the synergies are at least more immediately understandable.

By now you've seen the big news about the world's largest fast-food chain by revenue. It was a bit shocking that it took this long to happen, but McDonald's (MCD) is finally embracing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to boost sales. The guy credited with the turnaround at the 65-year-old restaurant behemoth since 2015, Steve Easterbrook, was behind the technological push that saw McDonald's not only embrace digital innovation but acquire two AI companies this year. This is big news for a few reasons. Before this year, it had been nearly two decades since the company made its last acquisition of a mediocre fast-food chain called Boston Chicken.

A Happy Meal and AI might not be the most obvious pairing but 2019 has seen McDonald's hit the headlines for its fast-paced investments in tech. In March, it acquired online personalisation startup Dynamic Yield for more than £232.8m This sparked a series of acquisitions, paving the way for what seems like the beginning of a journey for the iconic fast food chain to become the Amazon of food. A month later, it bought a 9.9% stake in mobile software company Plexure in a deal valued at about £3.8m, according to reports. The New Zealand-based company already helps with McDonald's mobile app but this surge of investment will see the chain have unprecedented access to Plexure's new tech for its app.

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.

McDonald's announced it will McBuy the Bay Area voice-recognition startup Apprente for an undisclosed amount. According to McDonald's, Apprente's "sound-to-meaning" technology handles "complex, multilingual, multi-accent and multi-item conversational ordering," and believes the technology will help streamline the drive-thru process -- even faster food, you say?? As the earth turns and the centuries change, so does the way people wish to order a Big Mac, and Micky D's has the cash to listen. Back in March, the company bought Dynamic Yield, which customizes drive-thru menus based on factors like weather, time of day, and customer order profiles. A month later, it invested in New Zealand app-designer Plexure, which will help connect customers to its new smart drive-thrus, among other things.

McDonald's [MCD] share price has gained 19% this year. The purchase of Apprente, which is aimed at automating its drive-thru operations, is a clear indication of a more tech-focused direction for McDonald's. Apprente's voice-based, conversational technology, "will allow for faster, simpler and more accurate ordering", McDonald's said on Tuesday. The Big Mac seller added that Apprente's technology could also be incorporated into mobile ordering and self-order kiosks. At the end of trading without disclosing the deal's financial terms, McDonald's shares were down 0.11% to $209.45.

McDonald's (MCD) is one of the oldest and most popular fast food restaurant chains in the world and as with any other establishments that have been around as long, the company is constantly seeking ways to improve its service and the experience it gives customers. The 79-year-old restaurant has now announced the acquisition of Apprente, in a bid to improve its service using automated voice commands. Founded in 2017, Apprente is a Silicon Valley startup which focuses on the use of artificial intelligence to analyze and improve orders placed via a drive-through. Proper use of this technology could significantly improve McDonald's service by reducing service time considerably. If all goes according to plan, McDonald's hopes to also apply Apprente's technology to orders placed using the company's mobile app as well as its order kiosks.