McDonald’s Deploys AI-Powered Menu Boards at 700 Locations

Since making its biggest investment of the last two decades in late March, McDonald’s has been hard at work; the first public-facing element of its $300 million investment in Dynamic Yield, a tech startup specializing in artificial intelligence, has arrived.

According to a recent article in Nation’s Restaurant News, McDonald’s announced it has deployed AI-powered menu boards with automated suggestive selling at 700 of its restaurants. As part of an overall pivot in focus toward improving the drive-thru experience and returns in 2019, McDonald’s plans to use AI to “automate the upselling of menu items based on time of day, trending items and weather,” the article noted. Long term, the company will incorporate Dynamic Yield’s technology into the McDonald’s app and in-store kiosks.

On a conference call with investors, McDonald’s CEO Steve Easterbrook was quoted as saying, “We’re leveraging technology to improve and modernize the way we connect with customers. We’re confident about the road ahead.”