🗿 Can Robots Really Make Burgers?

GM. It’s officially summer. We made it. Break out the shorts and go touch sand.

EthCC is coming soon, Consensys goes after the IRS, and AI powered bots are going to make your next fast food order.

Without Further Ado. ☕ *knuckle cracks* ☕ Let’s get into it.

AI is Coming for the Restaurant Industry

This week McDonald’s announced the end of its AI drive thru trial, for now. McDonald’s had been testing AI chatbots in its drive-thrus at 100 US locations. 

Developed in partnership with IBM, they reported that the chatbots were able to take the order correctly around 85% of the time, with about 1 in every 5 orders needing human intervention. This would be a pretty insane shooting percentage in basketball, but when you are dealing with impatient McDonald’s drive thru clientele, 85% won’t cut it. Many videos like this one spread across tiktok and other platforms of people losing patience with the bots. Pretty overdramatic if you ask us. 

I don’t think it’s too crazy of an assumption that they will get that 15% figured out soon, and this won’t be the last we see of these order bots. This got us to thinking about all the other ways AI will be integrated into chain restaurants, and here’s what we found so far. 

(let’s ignore the economic impact of job loss now – it’s the first friday of summer, let’s stay positive).

Loyalty & Experience

• Personalized dining experiences 

• Suggest custom menu items tailored to your taste

• Personalize and optimize loyalty programs 

• Ordering chatbots (like mcdonald’s)

• Voice assistants at ordering kiosks

Back End Improvements

AI isn’t just for fun, the most impactful changes may actually come in the form of process improvements. 

• Improved inventory management

• Optimized demand forecasting

• Ensuring optimal staffing levels

• Predicting customer traffic patterns

Yeah this sounds boring, we know. But when your favorite Chick-fil-a cuts the wait time between you ordering and stuffing your face with a spicy biscuit in half, you can thank AI. 

Closing Thoughts

Are AI integrations in everything necessary to run a chain restaurant? Absolutely not. Will it be cool when chipotle suggests a new burrito combination specific to my taste? Definitely. NoFomo’s general stance towards AI is fear, but we aren’t scared of burger flipping robots and we don’t think you should be either. Could be nice actually.

What We’re Reading

• Apple’s AI push faces big challenges in China

• Consensys asks IRS to delay new crypto reporting rules, citing lack of clarity

• AI expert predicts a future like the movie HER

• Change Healthcare confirms ransomware hackers stole medical records on a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans

• Meme Coin Liquidity Hits Record High Even as Bid-Ask Spread Spotlights Risk

Conference Corner

EthCC Brussels is on deck and as always we have the event alpha for you.

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