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McDonald's Just Announced It's Completely Changing the Customer Experience
ZDNet ^ | Chris Matysczyk

Posted on 11/10/2021 12:01:21 PM PST by be-baw

You know the way the world is going because you're happy it's happening.

Out with the old ways of doing things -- going to work at an office, for example -- and in with doing your own thing. All the time, anywhere.

I sense McDonald's understands this.

It seems to have realized that people coming to work at its restaurants, greeting you as they take your order at the drive-thru and then quickly cooking your food is an outmoded concept.

Instead, how about machines doing it all faster than humans ever could?

Well, here's a little announcement the global burger chain made last week. McDonald's is now getting together with a very, very famous name in tech in order to make the drive-thru more robotic and therefore more crowd-pleasing.

You may remember that McDonald's was testing robot order-taking at its drive-thru in Chicago earlier this year.

A customer experience video showed how glorious it is to be greeted by one of Siri's many cousins. You could tell she was really, um, loving it.

This was just an experiment, right? They couldn't possibly be serious. Could they?

Well, now McDonald's seems ready to expand this test to further-flung parts of our great nation. Ray, the old ways are just a load of Kroc these days.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention the very famous tech name with which McDonald's will now partner.

It's IBM.

Yes, the IBM at which a Steve Jobs emissary once threw a large hammer in a famous ad. The IBM that used to be called Big Blue and now seems to be Big Intimidator of Little Companies.

Well, McDonald's has just sold IBM its McD Tech Labs -- the engineers that are formerly known as Apprente -- so that IBM can take on the robot-driven drive-thru dream.

As CNBC reported, McDonald's CEO Chris Kempczinski is delighted with how the robot-ordering drive-thru tests have gone. They apparently benefited customers and the remaining staff who still come to work at McDonald's.

Kempczinski offered: "In my mind, IBM is the ideal partner for McDonald's, given their expertise in building AI-powered customer care solutions and voice recognition." He added that the work now required is "beyond the scale of our core competencies."

Did you ever think your burger would come courtesy of IBM's Watson and friends? Of course you did. You've dreamed about this moment. The robots will never get it wrong. The robots will always be quicker. And the robots will enhance your emotional relationship with the brand.

That's what AI does. It strives for perfection so that you can offer it uncontrolled love.

Who needs a personal relationship when you can get your Big Mac thirty seconds faster?

Ultimately, of course McDonald's is making a wise business decision. If speed is what's required, the robots will surely provide it. Even if many of them still don't always grasp such nuances as an accent. (Don't worry, IBM is working on that.)

And it isn't just about speed. Just think of how much more personal data may be collected as the AI begins to learn who you are and what you really, really like. 

But please don't worry about that. The companies insist: "IBM and McDonald's are both committed to adopting AI responsibly by embedding ethical principles into AI applications and processes to build systems based on trust and transparency."

Having seen the AI ordering in action, I'm still not sure how tolerant I'll be of its essential inhumanity.

But perhaps the people I feel most sorry for are the employees of McD Tech Labs. Now they'll be working for the IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software division.

It doesn't sound quite as cool, does it?


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: ai; apprente; autonomy; bigblue; chicago; chriskempczinsk; ibm; illinois; mcdonalds; mcdtechlabs; riseoftherobots
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To: PeterPrinciple

The local McDonald’s down the road a mile is being remodeled.
I wonder if they will install ‘bots’?


121 posted on 11/10/2021 4:40:54 PM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: Mathews

As long as Hooters still has Hooters and no robots : )


122 posted on 11/10/2021 4:45:43 PM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more money. )
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To: be-baw

Robot won’t spit in your food.


123 posted on 11/10/2021 4:50:26 PM PST by Mean Daddy (Every time Hillary lies, a demon gets its wings. - Windflier)
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To: NicoDon

So, they are partnering with IBM to accomplish this, but IBM will be sued out of existence in the next 3 years for enforcing unconstitutional vaccine mandates on its employees BEFORE the rules were even put in place.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interesting. Sad :(

You say they were “enforcing them on the IBM employees before rules put in place...

Were they firing employees before the mandates were in place as well?

I am assuming that is what you meant...My daughter’s health care “institution” as many others were notifying employees of mandates in July and August. No “terminations” until January.

Wonder how many other companies were doing this.


124 posted on 11/10/2021 4:57:30 PM PST by Freedom56v2 (It's not the job of the unvaxxed to protect the vaxxed. That's the job of the "vaccine.")
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To: Mathews
Nope. 100% disagree.

You disagree with ME?

How DARE you!!!

};^P>

125 posted on 11/10/2021 5:27:02 PM PST by null and void (The Washington DC Swamp, Where Bottom Feeders Are Apex Predators!)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

Grossly, no one will be cleaning the machines.


126 posted on 11/10/2021 5:32:58 PM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: AnotherUnixGeek

Grossly, no one will be cleaning the machines.


127 posted on 11/10/2021 5:33:08 PM PST by CodeToad (Arm up! They Have!)
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To: be-baw

Sounds good to me. Soon I wont have to worry about someone spitting in my burger. Have you seen the quality of the slugs they are hiring now?


128 posted on 11/10/2021 7:09:00 PM PST by Mister Da (The mark of a wise man is not what he knows, but what he knows he doesn't know!)
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To: PapaBear3625

You might get metal shavings, or plastic pieces instead. Think of it as a happy meal.


129 posted on 11/10/2021 7:23:52 PM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them )
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To: wally_bert

Big laugh from that comment. I used to deal with lotus notes. What a dumpster fire. It was more than 20 years ago, though, and I had no idea it was still around.


130 posted on 11/11/2021 4:34:06 AM PST by NicoDon
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To: NicoDon

Alive and well where I am.

I got stuck with trying to be an administrator.

There are talks about it being phased out.

A certain faction insists on keeping the dinosaur going.


131 posted on 11/11/2021 4:50:01 AM PST by wally_bert (I cannot be sure for certain, but in my personal opinion I am certain that I am not sure.)
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Arthur Wildfire! March; Berosus; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
First good reason in about 20 years to buy IBM stock.
As long as I don't have to look at some IBM droid that has "chosen" to go "transgender", here's hoping all fast food joint chains quickly follow suit.

132 posted on 11/11/2021 6:49:21 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: wally_bert

Gotta use Notes, otherwise how do we learn when our order is ready?

/rimshot

Of course, Burger King and Wendy’s will have to buy a competing system from Microsoft, but we won’t be able to receive our food that we’ve already paid for until we log into Teams.


133 posted on 11/11/2021 6:52:44 AM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: null and void

Good one!


134 posted on 11/11/2021 6:59:44 AM PST by Mathews (It's all gravy, baby!)
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To: minnesota_bound

It’ll be robots with Hooters!


135 posted on 11/11/2021 7:00:56 AM PST by Mathews (It's all gravy, baby!)
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