McDonald’s Teams with IBM to Super-Size Drive-Thru Lane Tech

McDonald’s is partnering with IBM to bring technological improvements to the drive-thru lanes at its fast-food restaurants and automate the order-taking process, the companies said in a joint statement.

Under the agreement, IBM will acquire McDonald’s McD Tech Labs and step up the development and launch of its Automated Order Taking (AOT) technology. The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

McD Tech Labs was introduced after McDonald’s purchased Apprente in 2019 with a goal of driving employee and customer-facing innovations.

The move then was part of McDonald’s “Accelerating the Arches” strategy to advance technology across digital operations, delivery efforts, and drive-thru automation. IBM’s leadership in artificial technology (AI) is anticipated to escalate McDonald’s move towards improving the experience for customers and employees.

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“McDonald’s development and testing of AOT technology in restaurants has shown substantial benefits to customers and the restaurant crew experience. Moving forward, IBM’s expertise in building customer care solutions with AI and natural language processing will help scale the AOT technology across markets and tackle integrations including additional languages, dialects and menu variations,” according to the statement.

IBM’s acquisition of McD Tech Labs is a complement to its current work in AI and developing customer care solutions with IBM Watson, which is being used in multiple sectors to improve outcomes. Once the deal closes, the McD Tech Labs team will become part of the IBM Cloud & Cognitive Software division.

Read more: McDonald’s Aims to Leverage Loyalty to Grow Its Known Customer Base 8X

AOT will still be folded into McDonald’s tech landscape. Both McDonald’s and IBM are committed to the responsible adoption of AI technologies and integrating ethical principles into applications.

“In my mind, IBM is the ideal partner for McDonald’s, given their expertise in building AI-powered customer care solutions and voice recognition,” McDonald’s CEO Chris Kempczinski said on an earnings call on Wednesday (Oct. 27).