McDonald's uses AI technology to improve restaurant operation efficiency and service quality

McDonald's is using artificial intelligence to improve the operations of its 43,000 restaurants around the world, aiming to help employees cope with various stresses in their daily work. Brian Rice, McDonald's chief information officer, said that this technology can not only optimize interactions between employees and customers and suppliers, but also effectively prevent equipment failures and improve overall service quality.

According to the Wall Street Journal, McDonald's began launching an edge computing platform in some American restaurants last year and plans to promote it to more stores by 2025. This new technology brings many possibilities for innovation, such as computer vision technology that can check the accuracy of orders through a fixed camera in the kitchen before customers get the order. In addition, the automatic ordering artificial intelligence tested by McDonald's and IBM can simplify the drive-thru order process and improve the efficiency and accuracy of ordering.

In terms of kitchen equipment, McDonald's also installed sensors to collect data in real time, thereby predicting when equipment such as fryers or ice cream machines may fail. This forward-looking maintenance method can effectively reduce service interruptions caused by equipment failures. In addition, edge computing technology can help restaurant managers handle administrative tasks more easily, similar to the "generalized AI virtual manager" that Taco Bell and Pizza Hut are testing, which will greatly improve scheduling efficiency.

Although McDonald's has shown a positive attitude to promote the technology, Sandeep Unni, a retail analyst at market research firm Gartner, pointed out that McDonald's will face many challenges in popularizing the technology in franchised stores and self-operated stores. At the same time, deployment cost is also an important factor that needs to be considered.