McDonald's has just bought Apprente, a startup dedicated to artificial intelligence, which could eliminate human interaction in its drive-thru service.
. The fast food chain hopes to implement it in its restaurants to enable “faster, simpler and more accurate order taking” in its McAuto service, with the possibility of incorporating it in the future in mobile and kiosk orders, it explained in a press release .
McDonald's began testing voice-activated ordering in combination with robotic algeria phone number fryers in June, The Wall Street Journal reported . The company is already using Apprente's technology in select drive-thru locations and has launched a new unit called McD Tech Labs to implement it .
"McDonald's looks forward to growing its presence in Silicon Valley by hiring additional engineers, data scientists and other advanced technology experts to join McD Tech Labs," the company said. "Building out our technology infrastructure and digital capabilities are core to our Velocity Growth Plan and enable us to meet the growing expectations of our customers , while making it even simpler and more enjoyable for our team members to serve guests," said Steve Easterbrook, President and CEO of McDonald's Corporation.
The acquisition of Apprente, for which McDonald's paid an undisclosed amount, is its second foray into artificial intelligence this year, having bought AI personalization company Dynamic Yield for $300 million in March. The chain is using its technology to tailor menus to customers in order to sell more products.
Other restaurant chains are also investing in technology that could eliminate human employees. Starbucks , for example, announced in July that it was acquiring Bri