McDonald's Goes All In on AI. Here's Why.

In partnership with

Make more money from your website & future-proof your business

Join Raptive and earn a +15% higher RPM year-over-year — guaranteed. As the largest ad management platform, our ad code optimizations, direct sales, and exclusive partnerships deliver industry-leading RPMs.

Apply now if your site is 100% original content and consistently earns 100K+ PVs per month.

Apply Now

But First, Google

Literally while I was getting ready to publish this newsletter, Google rolled out a massive March Core Update, their first big algorithm update of the year.

Spencer and I predicted this on Niche Pursuits News two weeks ago (more reason to follow me there) and we were totally right.

I’ll be following the update closely, but here’s a quick video of what I’m seeing so far.

And Now, the McDonald’s Story

Artificial intelligence and McDonald’s are two of my favorite things. When I heard there was a story combining the two, I knew I had to report on it.

No, McDonald’s isn’t using robots to start flipping burgers—honestly, that’s probably one of the last things AI will replace.

What they are doing, though, is adopting AI to streamline many of their processes within the kitchen. That includes creating an AI manager to help guide employees without them needing to escalate issues up the chain of command to a higher-ranking human.

It also includes AI innovations around predictive analytics to better understand things like when equipment will fail (looking at you, McFlurry machines).

And finally, AI will help Mickey D’s personalize offers for individual customers.

Imagine that you always like to order an ice-cold Coca-Cola on a hot day. The AI will learn this pattern, and if the temperature is predicted to be over 100°F in your area, you might get a coupon in your email for a free Coca-Cola.

There’s one more thing McDonald’s isn’t doing with AI—beyond flipping burgers, that is. In fact, they tried this thing, and failed miserably at it.

I share what it is—as well as much more about McDonald’s AI adoption—in my new video.

Learn something!

You may have heard the term “synthetic data” thrown around in the AI space. What is it, and why does it matter?

In this video, I break down what you need to know about synthetic data, including how it’s being used to train self-driving cars and other mission-critical AI tech.

I also talk about the flaws and vulnerabilities synthetic data can introduce. Check it out here.