McLayoffs Incoming: McDonalds Embracing Google’s AI For Online Ordering

The American worker’s plan to phase themselves out of the job market once and for all is almost complete. At least, that’s what the case looks to be like at McDonald’s. The fast food restaurant, which has already adopted self-serve kiosks in store, is now tapping Google’s AI for its online ordering experience.

In a press release out late last week, McDonald’s said the partnership “is a significant step for McDonald’s in advancing its restaurant technology platform to become the most sophisticated and productive in the industry.”

Because that’s what you look for when you want a hamburger…

Brian Rice, McDonald’s Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, commented: “We see tremendous opportunity for growth in our digital business and our partnership with Google Cloud allows us to capitalize on this by leveraging our size and scale to build capabilities and implement solutions at unmatched speeds.”

He added: “Connecting our restaurants worldwide to millions of datapoints across our digital ecosystem means tools get sharper, models get smarter, restaurants become easier to operate, and most importantly, the overall experience for our customers and crew gets even better.”

Yeah, and the less minimum wage-making human meat suits we have littering the floors of our kitchen, the more efficient and cheaper things get. After all, AI doesn’t even have to take bathroom breaks! 

The chain says the partnership will help it roll out “significant advancements to its restaurant and customer platforms”. 

” With a consistent approach, McDonald’s expects to deploy innovations with much greater speed and agility. McDonald’s will use edge computing from Google Cloud to power these new platforms, bringing information storage and high powered computing into individual restaurants,” the press release says.

Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud’s Chief Executive Officer, said: “Through this wide-ranging partnership, Google Cloud will help McDonald’s seize on new opportunities to transform its business and customer experiences, empowering restaurants worldwide with the latest technologies for near-term impact.”

“Pairing the iconic brand, size and scale of McDonald’s with Google Cloud’s deep history in AI and technology innovation will redefine how this industry works and what people expect when they dine out,” he continued. 

All of that is nice, but all we’ve been looking for over the last 3 decades is to get no onions on our burger when we specifically ask for no onions. Has AI solved that problem yet?