SA国际传媒

A customized menu that helps make decisions for you. Food and drink offerings depending on the day and weather. Suggestions on which drink or dessert pairs well with an entree.

We鈥檙e not talking about a high-brow restaurant, or even a . We鈥檙e talking about McDonald鈥檚 drive thrus.

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Yesterday, the fast food giant announced it will acquire , an artificial intelligence company based in New York and Tel Aviv,.The acquisition will give McDonalds data on what purchases are most popular with consumers, and will offer a more 鈥減ersonal, customized鈥� experience, .

Prior to being acquired, Dynamic Yield had $83.3 million in funding and $17.8 million in revenue, according to . Its investors include Bessemer Venture Partners, Marker and Naver Corp. Its co-founder, Liad Agmon, is also the founder of , an intelligent social search engine in Tel Aviv, Israel.

McDonald鈥檚 said it has tested this technology in several U.S. restaurants in 2018, and will continue the roll out in 2019. It is adding to a string of data-focused features in its service: an app, mobile order, digital menus and self-order kiosks.

While artificial intelligence and a Big Mac might seem like an unlikely pairing, , a social entrepreneurship professor at New York University鈥檚 Stern School of Business, said the decision makes sense. For McDonald’s, at least.

鈥淭his is not signifying product innovation,鈥� he told SA国际传媒 News, saying that the company is looking for tools to increase sales, but not change health of the offerings.

Taparia, who co-founded , explained that as health trends continue to skew away from fast food, McDonald’s is under pressure to grow its top line. This acquisition will give the company data to increase sales at the point-of-purchase, so goal accomplished.

Unfortunately customers don鈥檛 regularly come to McDonald’s for healthy offerings, he said. So the data will tell McDonalds to push items like fries or burgers vs salads. From a business standpoint, he said it gives McDonald’s the green light to suggest more so-called junk food to customers but rationalized in a 鈥渟ubtle, scary way.鈥�

From its end, McDonald’s is showing that it is taking some steps in both the healthier, and more innovative direction. , it promised fresh, real beef in all restaurants. That same year, it its happy meal.

Steve Easterbrook, the CEO of McDonald’s, told that the acquisition will let the company have real-time information to connect the kitchen to customer tastes. The 鈥減redictive analytics鈥� he said could help cut down waste.

For its part, McDonald’s said the acquisition will help it address 鈥渆ver-changing consumer trends鈥� and provide 鈥済reater convenience鈥� for customers. 聽

McDonald’s will likely draw some interesting information about customer behaviors and taste buds from this acquisition. But, as the AI bandwagon continues to super-size, whether or not data-focused innovation is critical for the life of the fast food giant will be revealed by time.

Illustration Credit: Li-Anne Dias