McDonald’s AI Drive-Thrus May Be Too Smart for Their Own Good
By Travis Riffe • November 15, 2019
McDonald’s has been testing a solution that recognizes the license plate of a customer in the drive-thru and uses that information to provide AI-based recommendations of menu items. The technology (which requires permission from customers) takes into account the customer’s previous order history, weather, wait time and item popularity when providing suggestions on the drive-thru touchscreen. McDonald’s says that recommendation algorithms have already demonstrated an unspecified increase in order size, and the chain plans to roll them out to all its drive-thrus in the U.S. by the end of the year.