McDonald\u2019s Corp. is turning to Alphabet Inc.\u2019s Google to build out a chatbot that will help its army of restaurant workers get quick answers on questions like how to clean an ice cream machine.<\/p>\n
Called \u201cAsk Pickles,\u201d the bot will be trained on everything from manuals to data generated by equipment at restaurants.<\/p>\n
It will give workers guidance on the spot, potentially boosting productivity in an industry where every second counts.<\/p>\n
The test is one of the initiatives McDonald\u2019s is implementing as it rolls out Google Cloud\u2019s data and\u00a0generative artificial intelligence<\/a><\/strong> tools in restaurants around the world, highlighting the increasing importance of technology and digital channels to the chain\u2019s business.<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s mobile app, kiosks and delivery now account for more than 40% \u2014 or almost $9 billion \u2014 of the sales generated by franchised and company-operated stores across its top six markets, according to third-quarter financial figures.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re not yet leveraging the full potential of technology, nor are we leveraging the full potential of our scale,\u201d Brian Rice,<\/p>\n McDonald\u2019s global chief information officer, said in an interview ahead of the company\u2019s Wednesday\u00a0strategy update<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>for investors.<\/p>\n Underpinning the upgrades is Google Cloud\u2019s edge computing technology, which allows retailers to run systems like kiosks off of small servers connected directly to an individual store or restaurant, rather than relying on a centralized cloud.<\/p>\n That kind of setup is more reliable and allows for faster processing while enabling data collection, said Thomas Kurian, Google Cloud\u2019s chief executive officer.<\/p>\n In the future, franchisees or managers may have access to dashboards telling them that it\u2019s time to change the fryer oil or that freezers aren\u2019t running efficiently, Rice said.<\/p>\n Thousands of restaurants will start receiving hardware and software upgrades next year.<\/p>\n At some point, McDonald\u2019s could use the data to get a broader look at how equipment performs across its restaurants \u2014 most of which are operated independently by franchisees.<\/p>\n That, in turn, could inform supplier relationships. The ultimate goal is to reduce downtime, Rice said.<\/p>\n The two companies will also work on uses for generative AI. McDonald\u2019s size \u2014 it\u2019s shooting for more than 50,000 restaurants by 2027 \u2014 means its stores will generate reams of information to train AI models, Rice said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe more data you feed gen-AI models, the better they become,\u201d the executive said.<\/p>\n Using one software platform to power all of McDonald\u2019s restaurant and customer-facing digital platforms will allow the company to roll out upgrades faster, according to the chain.<\/p>\n It will also help make the ordering experience more consistent for guests, McDonald\u2019s said.<\/p>\n Called \u201cAsk Pickles,\u201d the bot will be trained on everything from manuals to data generated by equipment at restaurants.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":518957,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[88872,35793,91357,167,8509],"class_list":["post-518955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-software","tag-ai-chatbots","tag-artificial-intelligence-ai","tag-ask-pickles","tag-google","tag-mcdonalds"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518955"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518955"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518955\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518957"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518955"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518955"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518955"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Now read: Spar estimates SAP rollout problems cost R1.6 billion in lost turnover<\/a><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"