At a local Chick-Fil-A, the line is often 8 to 10 cars deep.
50 yards away at McDs, at the same time, their lane is often empty. We like the waffle fries more than the McDs potato toothpicks.
Posted on 09/12/2019 6:20:22 AM PDT by SJackson
Apprente staff, which includes employees with PhDs in machine learning and computational linguistics, will become part of McDonald's Global Technology team following the acquisition.
American fast food giant McDonald’s Corporation has entered into an agreement to acquire Apprente, a Silicon Valley start-up founded by Israelis that specializes in conversational voice-based technology.
The acquisition of the company, McDonald’s said, will “allow for faster, simpler and more accurate ordering at the Drive-Thru,” and could be incorporated into mobile ordering and kiosks in the future. No financial details were disclosed regarding the acquisition of the company, which has raised $4.8 million in two funding rounds to date.
Founded in 2017 by Itamar Arel and Moshe Looks, Apprente has worked to improve customer service experience at fast food restaurant drive-thrus through its artificial intelligence-powered, voice-based conversational system. The system, which enables ordering of multiple items in several languages, was evaluated in McDonald’s test restaurants prior to the agreement.
“We’re excited to announce that Apprente has entered into an agreement to be acquired by McDonald’s Corporation,” Arel and Looks said in a joint statement.
“From early on, it was clear to us that McDonald’s is truly committed to technology innovation, and that it was on a mission to spearhead the [Quick Service Restaurants] industry,” the statement said. “In partnership with McDonald’s, we set out to deliver a customer-focused solution, all while building a great team and culture. We were fortunate to have achieved all of these goals.”
Apprente staff, which includes employees with PhDs in machine learning and computational linguistics, will become part of McDonald’s Global Technology team following the acquisition.
The Apprente employees will also be founding members of McDonald’s internal Silicon Valley-based McD Tech Labs, which will work together with McDonald’s Innovation Center near Chicago to accelerate the deployment of new technologies. Seeking to grow its presence in Silicon Valley, the company said it expects to hire additional engineers, data scientists and other advanced technology exports to meet its future business needs.
“Building our technology infrastructure and digital capabilities are fundamental to our Velocity Growth Plan and enable us to meet rising expectations from our customers, while making it simpler and even more enjoyable for crew members to serve guests,” said McDonald’s president and CEO Steve Easterbrook.
“Apprente’s gifted team, and the technology they have developed, will form McD Tech Labs, a new group integrated in our Global Technology team that will take our culture of innovation one step further.”
In March, McDonald’s announced the acquisition of Tel Aviv-based personalization and decision logic start-up Dynamic Yield for $300 million.
The company’s technology, which is now deployed in over 8,000 McDonald’s restaurants across the United States, varies outdoor digital drive-thru menu displays to show food based on time of day, weather, restaurant traffic and trending menu items.
McDonald’s plans to integrate the technology into nearly all drive-thrus in the US and Australia by the end of 2019.
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Fix it so Laquisha and Lamont can’t pull the cashier through the drive up widow when their McNuggets are late.
Does it speak Jive?
By this dastardly act of the acquisition of an Israeli company, McDonald’s is inviting a BDS-led boycott.
I suppose the main problem with kiosks at McDonalds is the germs on the touch pad. Voice recognition will probably be the future of this sort of stuff, especially at drive through windows.
If you couple that with smart credit cards that can be scanned by waving/tapping them on a card reader, one could complete a McDonalds experience touching only the bag.
Isn’t it going to be expensive to employ Israeli PhD computer scientists in all their drive-through windows?
/s
The kiosks were obsolete before they were installed.
In China they have solved the problem with aps used by millions of users. The ap s are far from new. They are infact seasoned.
The buyer has an ap developed by his bank or funds depository. That ap allows interaction with various vendors having an order/payment ap. That is , the purchaser calls up his bank ap that then points to vendor aps, say McDonalds. The purchaser then places an order and the two aps interact ot make the order and obtain payment.
On arrival at McDonalds, the purchaser shows the receipt on his phone provided by his bank ap and collects his order.
This is the direct simplicity that American companies avoid
At a local Chick-Fil-A, the line is often 8 to 10 cars deep.
50 yards away at McDs, at the same time, their lane is often empty. We like the waffle fries more than the McDs potato toothpicks.
Will it default to English or will I have to press "1"?
EXCEPT — for people who do not have smart phones or use a operating system that is neither iOS or Android.
I suppose the main problem with kiosks at McDonalds is the germs on the touch pad.
I am always amazed when someone focus on one small item and ignores everything else.
Could there be “germs” on touch screens? Yes, but why is the focus here and not say for example the door you need to open to get into McDonald. Or how about the tables if you sit and eat there. Or if you are really worried, how about the money that is exchanged back and forth. If I was a real germaphobic I would never touch money with my bare hands.
The truth is, germs, virus, bacteria are everywhere. Every thing you touch and the air you breath.
So why are we all not dead? First not all are deadly and second we are immune to most of them.
So no, the touch screen at McDonalds is not going to kill you.
Ha Ha , beat me to it. Or a 'Can taking orders and unintelligible.
My theory is that it is large corporations who are the driving force behind the ‘Fight for $15’ movement. The idea is to make human labor too expensive to be economically feasible. So they have an excuse to bring in artificial intelligence and robotics.
The AI will understand English.
Unlike a lot of current fast food employees.
This is the direct simplicity that American companies avoid
My European based bank charges me for all cash withdrawals. Be careful what you wish for.
I know a guy who was working on automated cook stations for Wendy’s thirteen years ago. The project was suddenly and mysteriously killed in 2009, I suspect because Wendy’s was loathe to provoke Obama by replacing workers during an economic downturn.
Politics will always trump technology here.
I believe it comes with two voice options, Jackie Mason or Henny Youngman.
ooh, ooh, ooh....I want the Henny Youngman! “Take my wife....please!”
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