You want AI with that? McDonald's Engages in Machine Learning

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McDonalds

McDonald's is buying a startup in Artificial Intelligence to help it provide data-driven meal choices.

The technology developed by the Israeli start-up Dynamic Yield allows to automatically modify the menus according to the weather, the hour and the traffic.

McDonald's would have paid 300 million dollars (227 million pounds sterling) to the technology firm.

The recognition of the license plates would also allow it to offer customers during driving tours their usual food order, McDonald's told Wired.

Dynamic Yield's technology would help AI determine which products are promoted, for example by automatically suggesting McFlurry ice cream on hot days or by telling customers the items that have already been proven in this restaurant.

In the United States, most of McDonald's outlets are automated access points. That's why the restaurant chain plans to deploy the technology first.

"He can know the time, the weather and the weather, we can also make him understand what our hours of service are, so he only suggests items that are easier to make hours." peak, "said McDonald's general manager, Steve Easterbrook.

The ultimate goal was to provide a "much more personalized experience" and to be able to suggest additional items based on the customer's initial order, he added.

Mr Easterbrook said that McDonald's would use technology to make the most of the data collected from its 68 million fast food customers, and that it would be integrated with the application and the online order kiosks already in store.

Dynamic Yield, based in Tel Aviv, has designed algorithms that use buying habits and past purchases to suggest the items you will buy next. They have also produced machine learning systems for other companies, including Ikea, Office and William Hill.