McDonald's recently unveiled 'McDonald's Next', a three-year roadmap, at an event for investors and analysts. AI is the key theme. McDonald's aims to lift restaurant efficiency by investing $8.5 billion in store improvements and other initiatives.

According to Constellation Research, McDonald's presented a data flywheel, an AI-based store operating system, a strategic partnership with Google, and inventory and supply-chain efficiency as growth drivers.

A data flywheel refers to a virtuous cycle in which services improve as data accumulates, leading to the collection of more data.

For McDonald's, the need for efficiency is pressing. That is because inflation fallout is expected to leave visitor growth in company-owned markets flat.

Against that backdrop, McDonald's CEO Christopher Kempczinski (크리스토퍼 켐친스키) positioned data as the company’s biggest weapon. "We sell food to more than 70 million customers every day. Nearly 220 million customers regularly use our app and loyalty program," he said. "As a result, we have more data and insights than anyone. It is an especially valuable asset for training new AI capabilities," he added.

Kempczinski said McDonald's previously ran hundreds of finance and human resources systems. It built separate apps by country. Data was scattered everywhere like puddles rather than a lake. Different parts of the organisation handled the same work in different ways.

Now McDonald's runs on a common technology platform and a unified enterprise data foundation, it said. More than 46,000 restaurants use the same system. McDonald's has also refined a strategy of piloting new technology in overseas markets first, before expanding it to the United States.

The AI strategy centres on an AI-based store operating system called ArchIQ.

ArchIQ is used in four main areas. The first is drive-thru voice AI. A voice AI model called Arches takes real-time orders in English and Spanish. Accuracy is about 90%. McDonald's expects Arches to cut at least 50 hours of labour a week.

The second is inventory automation. ArchIQ tracks inventory in real time using low-power Bluetooth tags. It saves about 5 hours a week and cuts food waste by 15 percent.

The third is equipment connectivity and computer vision. It focuses on improving food quality and consistency. The fourth is an intelligent scale that checks order accuracy. The scale verifies millions of orders a day. McDonald's has installed the intelligent scales at 10,000 restaurants and plans to double that by 2028.

The company said ArchIQ is technology first proven in China. Some 8,000 restaurants in China already use a management tool that shows operating status and inventory in real time.

Infrastructure is being built in cooperation with Google. McDonald's has deployed Google edge technology at thousands of restaurants in seven major markets. That enables AI computing to be processed inside restaurants. A data lake directly tied to restaurant operations collects billions of data points daily. McDonald's CIO Brian Rice (브라이언 라이스) stressed that a common data structure creates a "continuous learning loop".

It has not yet been confirmed which company supplies the data lake. Constellation Research said job postings suggest Google Cloud plays a major role and AWS is responsible for some areas.

Customer touchpoints have also been integrated into a single system. McDonald's introduced a global mobile platform called GMA1 that integrates ordering, marketing, loyalty and data. McDonald's is also stepping up personalised marketing using data from loyalty members.

The cost burden is significant. McDonald's CFO Ian Borden (이안 보든) acknowledged that AI and store remodeling will cost $8.5 billion. McDonald's must also persuade franchisees who are hesitant.

Even so, Borden said he expects AI to also improve efficiency in headquarters operations. "In the past, we had 600 finance systems and hundreds of HR systems," he said. "Now we can use scalable tools and capabilities across the whole organisation to boost efficiency. AI is also useful in connecting the entire end-to-end work process," he added.