Let’s talk a little fast food.
McDonald’s has partnered with Google Cloud to implement cloud-based analytics and AI solutions across its restaurants. The multi-year partnership will involve deploying Google Distributed Cloud computing and storage to individual restaurants, allowing for sharper tools, smarter models, and an improved overall experience for customers and crew. McDonald’s aims to open 50,000 new restaurants, expand its loyalty program, and have 30% of delivery orders originate from its mobile app by 2027.
Presto Automation, an artificial intelligence-powered drive-thru company, relies on off-site human workers in the Philippines to complete over 70% of orders despite marketing itself as a labor automation technology provider. This pattern of AI companies using contractors in countries with lower labor costs is not uncommon, with many disguising human labor as AI. The restaurant industry’s experiments with AI have raised concerns about job replacement, but in this case, labor is being outsourced rather than replaced by AI.
New research from Stanford University suggests that fears of increased cheating in high schools due to AI chatbots like ChatGPT were overblown. The study found that introducing chatbots did not significantly impact overall cheating rates. While some students used chatbots for generating ideas or editing papers, most teens surveyed had little to no knowledge of ChatGPT. The research highlights the need to shift the focus from cheating fears to helping students understand and critically engage with AI tools.
Why do we care?
We’re coming down from the peak of inflated expectations on the hype cycle, and a lot of the fear is proving to be misplaced. Replace all workers at the drive-through? Students never write papers again? Not today.
Instead, practical implementations. Fast food is a great example – it’s less about replacing workers and more about analytics. By integrating Google’s advanced cloud and AI technologies, McDonald’s is positioning itself to improve operational efficiency and personalize customer interactions. Do more of that.