McDonald’s buys voice-based AI to speed up ordering

If you thought we had perfected fast food ordering, think again. McDonald’s is going to drag us all into the future, whether we like it or not.

The golden arched burger empire announced Tuesday that it plans to acquire Apprente, a startup that specializes in speech-based AI technology. The McDonald’s press release claims this will “allow for faster, simpler and more accurate order taking” at its drive-thru kiosks.

Somewhat crucially, McDonald’s didn’t say how much it’s paying for Apprente. The arches shelled out a whopping $300 million on machine learning firm Dynamic Yield earlier this year, in another move theoretically meant to make ordering more efficient through modern tech.

Apprente’s technology seems hyper-focused on voice-powered customer service applications, so getting bought up by McDonald’s is probably a massive win for them. As Wired explained, Apprente’s speech AI is supposed to work better in the kind of cacophonous environment one might find in a McDonald’s around lunchtime. 

As such, it’s not tough to imagine McDonald’s eventually adding voice ordering to its indoor kiosks down the road. The press release even hinted at the possibility.

It might seem a little goofy for a fast food chain to keep acquiring tech startups, but it’s consistent with the company’s direction over the past few years. McDonald’s has gone all the way in on mobile ordering and kiosks in order to modernize the experience. The company announced a plan to add 1,000 kiosks to its stores every quarter back in 2018.

However, it hasn’t exactly been peachy for everyone. The more futuristic McDonald’s experience has raised the ire of some restaurant workers, citing increased workloads for more complex daily tasks without increased pay.