McDonald's Corporation has announced an agreement to acquire Apprente, an early stage leader in voice-based conversational technology.
The agreement marks another step in advancing employee and customer-facing innovations while further strengthening the fast food chain's technological capabilities.
Rising Expectations
"Building our technology infrastructure and digital capabilities are fundamental to our velocity growth plan, and enable us to meet rising expectations from our customers while making it simpler and even more enjoyable for crew members to serve guests," said McDonald's Corporation president and CEO Steve Easterbrook. "Apprente's gifted team, and the technology they have developed, will form McD Tech Labs, a new group integrated into our global technology team that will take our culture of innovation one step further."
In McDonald's restaurants, this technology is expected to allow for faster, simpler and more accurate order taking at the drive-through.
The chain also suggested that there is potential to incorporate the technologies into mobile ordering and kiosks in the future.
"Leading The Industry"
"It was quite clear from our various engagements that McDonald's is leading the industry with technology," said Itamar Arel, co-founder of Apprente and VP of McD Tech Labs. "Apprente was born 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."
The latest investment builds on several key technology initiatives that McDonald's has introduced in recent years to improve the employee and customer experience.
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Aidan O'Sullivan. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
