McDonald’s has announced its intent to buy tech start-up Apprente, who specialise in building voice-based agents. Through this technology, McDonald’s will be able to automate their drive-thrus, making them simpler, faster and more accurate at taking orders.
Mountain View-based Apprente will be instrumental in leading McD Tech Labs, a new restaurant technology group based in Silicon Valley. The Apprente team will become the founding members, and Itamar Arel, Apprente’s co-founder, will serve as vice president. Arel said, “Apprente was borne out of an opportunity to use technology to solve challenging real-world problems, and we’re thrilled to now apply this to creating personalised experiences for customers and crew.”
In addition to drive-thru technology, McDonald’s have said that there is potential to expand the tech into other areas, like mobile and kiosk ordering. It is said that the voice technology will be implemented across McDonald’s in the USA by 202, which could reduce the number of human jobs across the board.
