Chances are you have been in a McDonald’s at some point in your life. You might be heading there today. The restaurant has come a long way since Richard and Maurice McDonald opened a barbeque joint in 1940 in San Bernardino, California. Many a high school student has found their first job working here but those days may be ending soon. AI and technology have taken many of the mundane jobs away from humans and moved them into the domain of technology so for workers at McDonald’s, your days may now be numbered.
McDonald’s
McDonald’s is the second largest fast food restaurant in not only the United States (behind Subway) but also the world (also behind only Subway). In recent years their restaurants have undergone a series of massive renovations to the tune of $6 billion to change the aesthetic look of the store and to modernize them. Part of this included the installation of kiosks (a la Sheetz, Rutters, Wawa, etc.) that customers use to place their orders making counter workers somewhat irrelevant by the time this is completed in 2020. Technology will now be also moving to the drive thru.
Improving In-Restaurant Technology
Earlier this month, McDonald’s announced that it has purchased the Chicago-based voice tech startup Apprente. Apprente specialized in building voice-based technology that is capable of receiving orders in multiple languages and accents. The technology is intended to be introduced first in the drive thru and may move inside the store to kiosks and mobile ordering as well.
McDonald’s has already made a deal to purchase Dynamic Yield to create drive thru menus that can be customized by the time of day, trending menu items, current state of restaurant traffic and even the weather. This technology is expected to be implemented in all US and Australian restaurants by the end of this year. It has also acquired a minority stake in the mobile app tech company Plexure.
Good For The Company And Good For The Customer
For almost everyone, this seems to be a win/win. The kiosks have proved to be widely popular making for easier ordering and easier payment. Order accuracy has also been increased. Utilizing AI for a drive thru will only make those more faster and efficient.
McDonald’s does use different menus throughout the course of the day, from its breakfast menu to its late night menu. AI will be able to switch from these menus more seamlessly than a human can. It will also be able to take the order more efficiently and more accurately since it will supposedly have no issue with accents or language. No need to repeat an order or have something garbled by static. Better efficiency also means that people will move through the drive thru faster and get on with their day. Considering how long it takes to get through a drive thru at many franchises this could also attract new customers.
Not Good For Regular Workers
Of course there are one group of people that will be negatively affected by this and these are many of the regular employees of McDonalds. Counter workers will no longer be needed in the same number meaning that fewer people will be employed. These jobs are obviously popular with younger people, like high school students and with many lower skilled workers or people looking for a part time job. While McDonald’s will be hiring more tech people and more data scientists, these people will be losing their jobs.
This is once again another instance of AI taking the jobs of humans. In our future AI could be doing anything from farming to delivering packages to even composing music. Heck, AI can even flip burgers (McDonald’s kitchen staff, your days are numbered too). Will there be any humans left at McDonald’s by the time this is over? We would imagine that there would be, the hotel in Japan that tried an all-robotic staff didn’t quite work out as planned.
But who knew that the most technologically advanced restaurant in 2020 would be McDonald’s?