The Verge reports that McDonald's and Google will be joining forces to integrate generative artificial intelligence into its restaurants worldwide, improving its food, and overall services, leading to "hotter, fresher" meals for customers by 2024.
The announcement is said to integrate the latest cloud technology and generative AI solutions within McDonald's, helping restaurant general managers to swiftly identify and implement solutions to minimize business interruptions and assist equipment manufacturers to speedup their innovation in automation.
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People leave a McDonald's restaurant on September 21, 2020 in Amsterdam, Netherlands.
Among the many projected upgrades for McDonald's, the company plans to roll out new, universal software starting in 2024 that will power all digital platforms used by customers and restaurants at McDonald's, including loyalty programs, in-store kiosks, and mobile applications.
Customers will reportedly receive a more recognizable, consistent experience regardless of where they go or how they order thanks to the unique operating system, which will allow restaurants to implement innovation even quicker, with less complexity and more stability.
These upgrades is also said to increase opportunities in streamlining customized AI solutions due to increased data sharing. McDonald's GenAI models will be able to comprehend the widest variety of patterns and subtleties thanks to the volume of incoming data from all over the world. This will lead to more intelligent testing and automated solutions that will improve restaurant operations.
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McDonald's Projected "Unmatched Speed"
The partnership was lauded by McDonald's Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, Brian Rice after the official said it will offer "unmatched speeds" in using the company's size and scale to develop capabilities and put solutions in place, as per McDonald's.
Rice remained to be customer and crew-centric however, adding that the restaurants will be simpler to operate, tools grow sharper, models become smarter, and most importantly, the entire experience for the guests and crew gets even better as a result of connecting the company's locations across the world to millions of data points across a digital ecosystem.
McDonald's states that a specialized Google Cloud team in Chicago will collaborate closely with McDonald's worldwide innovation hub, 'Speedee Labs,' as a result of this new agreement. In order to provide staff and customers with innovative new experiences that combine McDonald's unrivaled ease and value with generative AI, they will jointly concentrate on implementing the technology across many critical business goals.
The Impact of an AI-Powered McDonald's
The partnership is reportedly geared towards "near-term impact" as stated by Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud's Chief Executive Officer, adding that the combination of Google Cloud's extensive history of technological innovation and AI with McDonald's recognizable brand, size, and scope will completely change the way this business operates and what customers can expect from dining out.
As per the Verge, the announcement veered away from the idea of replacing human workers with AI, despite the AI-centric development for the company, but CBS reports that experts foresee a trend towards automation in the face of a labor crisis, especially in low-wage professions in the fast-food and service industries.
McDonald's partnership will make the fast food chain, the biggest global food service retailer to use Google Distributed Cloud's new capabilities.
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