> McDonald’s consumers remain pressured, particularly low-income diners and families. The restaurant is hoping that a better tech-enabled experience will help it deliver on its goal of growing its loyalty patrons from 175 million to 250 million by 2027
> [..]
> AI will be able to help McDonald’s tailor its promotions and offers by using customer data such as prior purchasing history, and even linking it with weather data, Rice said. “A customer who we know loves our sweet treats could get an offer through the app for a McFlurry on a hot summer day,” he said.
So the pitch is that McDonald's franchises will use AI-driven deals to entice families who can no longer afford the 40% higher prices.
Once it detects who you are, it'll check to see how much money you have and jack up all their prices if they think you can afford it. Get a new job that comes with a 10% raise? Your prices at McD's will all go up by 10%.
It'll algorithmically determine how much money you're willing/able to spend to ensure that you're always forced to hand over the most money they can possibly get from you.
They absolutely will. The problem with just setting a high price is that they'd be leaving money on the table whenever anyone who could afford even higher prices comes through. That's what they want to eliminate.
Even if you aren't earning more money the algorithm will constantly be testing you by jacking up prices to see what you'll endure under which circumstances. Screaming kids in the car with you? You'll probably put up with an extra 38.33 cents for those happy meals. Looking tired? A recent death in your family? Do your resent social media posts indicate that under more stress? Enjoy higher and higher prices to stress-eat your comfort foods peasant.
I don't see any of the backlash Wendy's got for this kind of bullshit either.
Look, I'm all excited over the incoming cyberpunk dystopia but no they won't be able to do this. They still have posted menu prices and folks will be pissed if prices ever go up from what they're expecting to pay.
Digital signs and apps are what they're pushing on us now. There are already restaurants that don't have any kind of printed/posted menu at all and you're expected to use your phone to scan a QR code. There's no telling if the prices shown to you on your device are the same as what the person behind you in line will see.
There are also already restaurants that have different prices when you use their app which helps condition you to accept that prices will differ from person to person or even day to day.
You're right that people don't care for discriminatory pricing though. People's objection to the practice is the only thing that's been keeping it from being more widely used already (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41272-019-00224-3)
They stand to make money hand over fist from it though so we're going to see company after company testing it, pushing the boundaries of what we'll accept and normalizing the practice. Without regulations making discriminatory pricing illegal in certain settings, it's basically inevitable that we'll see it more often.
They would probably be able to do it if the listed prices were fixed, but they provided a personalized discount that would vary depending on who you are.
I’m also trying to figure out how AI is revolutionizing the business by selling cold treats on a hot day when people did that in the analog era. That seems like it would be a lot more compelling if it found some non-obvious connections.
Exactly - the exact same pitch would have been used with “big data” in the 2010s, and probably something about OLAP a decade before that. It was weird seeing that example without even attempting to explain what makes it AI other than, presumably, giving Gartner a lot more money.
I think some of that is age and experience helping recognize the cycle (and the big consulting companies always pushing new things hoping their clients won’t notice their previous claims were off) but there also seems to be an angle around how much money is controlled by a handful of people seeking huge returns. The industry tends to focus on what VCs want and there just isn’t much diversity in that community – the guys who got lucky don't reliably keep having new ideas and having more money than you know what to do with tends to stifle creativity: they’re not forced to deal with criticism, nobody is stressing about their success, and their working experience is increasingly outdated because they’re hearing only from other rich guys who also not only don’t have to do the hard parts themselves but probably have entire teams “green-shifting” things so nobody has to tell their boss that their business isn’t as simple as some Gartner analyst assumed.
So far the only jobs AI seems to be trying to take are the 'good' ones. Creativity, analysis, programming. Sure there's the dream that people in all 3 groups will just leverage it to do more and better, but most of the impact so far has been management openly extatic at all the people they can fire/pressure/not hire. Not the revolution I was looking for so far. And that's before taking the new horizons for disinformation and harassment into account.
The pitch is always "here's how we're going to squeeze more blood from the stone". Public comments like these are targeted at investors, not customers.
Grocery stores have operated like that since the 1950's. They have higher prices in-store, but if you can't afford those then you clip coupons to save, yes, often 40% or more.
And CVS and other stores already print coupons attached to my receipt that are customized just for me.
Why wouldn't McDonald's do the same thing with coupons/offers in their app?
Weirdly, when I was broke and jobless, living off the deals from McDonald's was pretty decent. I could normally get a free fries or sandwich practically every day on the app.
The app gives pretty good discounts. It's pretty easy to save about 20% using the app for an order. I think the rewards is also about 10-15%. If you are going to go to a Quick Stop Restaurant, it's generally a good idea to use the app.
Edge computing will enable applications like predicting when kitchen equipment—such as fryers and its notorious McFlurry ice cream machines—is likely to break down, Rice said.
It is not hard to know if a machine is broken. There is an entire map dedicated to this, which shows state-wide broken rate as high as 40% for some states.
If you know these machines are broken and they are not being fixed, what use will be to know what machines will break in the future? This is not a technology problem, this is a business and people problem. Another case of companies using AI to garner positive marketing, instead of improving their service and customer's experience.
Surveilling employees is a potential use case for AI. It’s not one I’m particularly fond of, and I wouldn’t want to build it, but I know how it could be done at a technical level.
To be fair, up until recently copyright/DMCA prevented them from repairing the ice cream machines - I'd give it some time to see if things start to improve. Other kitchen equipment does seem to generally be fixed/replaced promptly enough to not typically cause major impact.
Sensors on the equipment seems reasonable to me. Predicting failure in advance can avoid downtime or more costly damage. Machines with degrading performance and some underlying issue can also be a food safety issue, if it isn't addressed until they entirely fail.
> up until recently copyright/DMCA prevented them from repairing the ice cream machines
That's a red herring. The actual thing preventing them is the franchise contracts that require all ice cream machine maintenance be performed by a specific company, because McD's corporate knows that otherwise franchisees will cut corners and leave the brand associated with listeria outbreaks.
Isn't that Apple's argument for not allowing you to get your battery replaced by a 3rd party, because customers might buy a cheap off brand battery and it could cause their phone to catch fire?
Yes. The difference is that, unlike possible phone fires, we know franchises will cause listeria outbreaks if left to their own devices because they have done so. It was a whole thing in the 90s and the obvious reason why McD's implemented the current policy in the first place.
> To be fair, up until recently copyright/DMCA prevented them from repairing the ice cream machines
Was that the story, or was the story that McDonald's was using copyright/DMCA in order to prevent their franchisees from repairing the ice cream machines?
A machine about to break down is not a machine that HAS broken down. Predictive (but preventative!) is an active area of research in industrial circles.
Anyone who has ever worked any restaurant will tell you that "likely to break soon" is NOT "broken" and no action will be taken until the latter condition is met.
> Depending on how you want to think about it, it was funny or inevitable or symbolic that the robotic takeover did not start at MIT, NASA, Microsoft or Ford. It started at a Burger-G restaurant in Cary, NC on May 17. It seemed like such a simple thing at the time, but May 17 marked a pivotal moment in human history.
I started reading it. It’s very interesting that the author thought computer vision would be the hardest part about robotics.
> Without vision, robots could not move around or manipulate objects. All of the other hardware was there. Legs and balance systems to allow bipedal motion had been in place for decades. Robotic fingers and hands with very fine motor control were easy to create. AI software to set goals and make decisions was getting more powerful every day. Everything was there but the vision system.
It turns out that dexterity has been much harder than vision.
I don't understand how McDonalds is still relevant outside of food deserts. The food quality is trash, and the prices are so high that you can and should just go elsewhere and buy real food.
I see this sort of remark every time McDonald's comes up and I always wonder why it doesn't prompt people to check their assumptions. Clearly they are doing well enough so you're missing something.
Seeing as how the remark begins with “I don’t understand how…” it seems you’re the one with unchecked assumptions: namely, about what the text actually says.
No, I don't think that's fair. There are 2 assumptions in your comment which I think the poster you're replying to is suggesting you should reevaluate:
> The food quality is trash, and the prices are so high
If these assumptions are true, it makes sense why you wouldn't understand why McDonalds is relevant / successful.
I do not think these assumptions are true. The food quality is fine - it's somewhere between palatable and mildly tasty for most people. If you use their app, the prices are lower than most other places you could get the same number of calories + protein content.
The food is also very consistent. I've surely gone to at least 20 different McDonalds locations in my life all over the USA, and it tastes pretty much the same every time. I can't say the same for most of their competitors.
But those aren't assumptions: they're statements of personal opinion.
> If you use their app, the prices are lower
Now, that's an interesting data point. I am very app-resistant. It's definitely possible that regulars aren't paying the prices I am seeing.
> The food is also very consistent.
This is so surprising to read! In my experience, this was true 1-2 decades ago, but no longer. I actually do crave "good McDonalds" on occasion, but it's so hard to come by that I rarely bother. Even in the EU, where McD's has always tried harder, I now see the same deterioration and neglect.
The fries can be amazing when fresh and hot. One of the most satisfying things in the world is eating a pound of salty fried potatoes after a big day of hiking.
The food quality is decent. It is also cheaper than 99% of the restaurants out there. It's a cheaper option for people who don't want to cook and don't want to spend a lot of money eating.
The food quality is fine. Nutritionally, the burgers and fries are no different from if you made them with ingredients from the supermarket. It's certainly not gourmet, but if you use the app the prices are cheaper than basically anywhere else. Where I am, I can spend $9 on a McDonald's meal or $18-25 for "real food". And actually get enough protein from a double quarter pounder, whereas the expensive "real food" is often three teensy strips of meat on top of a gigantic serving of carbs.
I wish this was still the case, but in my experience the differences between individual fast food joints is enormous. We've got one Taco Bell in town for example which is known to take 10+ minutes per car and they constantly screw up orders. This usually shows up as a 1 star fast food restaurant rather than the more common 2-3 stars on review sites.
For me the tell is their soda. My guilty McDonald's pleasure is their Coke mix. Something about it tastes much better than other restaurants or bottles. Except at some McDonald's where they seem to have the CO2 cranked up too much. I can't even get a consistent soft drink from McDonald's anymore. When I get unsalted fries though... those are basically inedible.
McDonald's seems to recently have really bad soda at increasingly close to all restaurants in my general area, and if you try to Google information on this (prepare your tin foil hat) you can only find people claiming Joe Rogan told them McDonald's has a secret exclusive best coke formula.
Not my experience in the UK. I hate macdonalds and have eaten there three times in 30 years. But it's a cheap place to take a family to eat compared to most other options. I say this as someone whose wife is a keen cook and I know what decent food is... Definitely not defending the food but the price is often right, particularly if you have multiple kids or their friends with them.
The price hasn't gone up much in the US, but they did shift all the coupons to the app, which means you're missing out on huge deals if you don't use it. It's like 50% off once a day iirc.
But half of relevancy is branding, the other half is delivering. McD has advertising dollars still (also they own other successful franchises such as Chipotle), and in some places in the world it's not crap. It's just another over-priced food chain with some weird marketing attached.
> and the prices are so high that you can and should just go elsewhere and buy real food.
Not sure what you’re implying here, but McDonald’s is still contending for the bottom for price on fast food. Groceries are of course cheaper if that’s what you mean by “real food”, but there aren’t restaurants that really compete with that value meal outside of Taco Bell/Time and maybe Burger King.
At one point I noticed that a Big mac and a large fry was $10, and that I could spend an extra $3 or $4 and get a steak, a baked potato, a salad, and loaf of bread at Outback.
There aren't many big box names that compete. There are usually places that sell you a "meal" for comparable cost.
The franchise has to pay fees and offer specific menu items. Small restaurants can outcompete in both price and quality.
The flip side is those places don't normally get enough foot traffic to offer their stuff "near cost", so they bundle it up into serving sizes in the $$ range that can last you a couple days. And they don't have brand marketing on their side... Joe's Diner can equally be a gem in the rough or in dire need of a new cook and a safety inspection...
Those places are expensive now too. You should see how much they actually charge now a days in 2025. Burritos made on the sidewalk go for $12 or more now. The bacon wrapped hotdog cooked in a shopping cart on the sidewalk is now like $7 or $8 instead of $5. Cheap food isn’t so cheap anymore. You basically have to vet out specific lunch specials or something if you want a deal on a “meal” and even that will be a small plate vs dinner portion usually. And mcdonalds still wins on a calorie to dollar basis because the app routinely has deals like 2 for 1 big macs where you can throw back a good 1500 calories for like $6 or less. Only thing competitive is costco food court.
> Not sure what you’re implying here, but McDonald’s is still contending for the bottom for price on fast food.
No, that's exactly my point. McDonalds isn't all that cheap anymore. There are high-quality fast-casual restaurants and local shops that deliver much better quality food at roughly the same price point. E.g.: it looks like $12 is the current price for a Big Mac meal in my area. But I can think of several places I regularly go for lunch that would offer a handmade sandwich and proper side dish, made with organic ingredients no less, for the same price.
I think this is true of the normal menu items, but I still see the value meal as a decent deal. McChicken, small fries, 4 piece nugget and small drink for $5. Similar to Taco Bell where the normal meals aren't that cost effective anymore, but if you pick and choose the value items you can get a ton of food for little money.
Taco Bell is a staple post gym meal for my son and his friends who are trying to bulk as cheap and easily as possible.
> there aren’t restaurants that really compete with that value meal outside of Taco Bell/Time and maybe Burger King.
IKEA does, at least here in Europe. Of course you're not going to find an IKEA on every third block but it you happen to have one around and want some average food a for fairly low (and sometimes very low) price they're a good option. They are also a reliable quality, Swedish meatballs are Swedish meatballs everywhere. A bit like McD, really...
most of it is trash but there are some items you can order that are a bit more average quality. for instance iirc the quarter pounder patties are grilled in-house and when you order egg on a breakfast sandwich you can choose an option where they use real egg not just the processed stuff.
i’ve also noticed locations in Japan tend to taste a bit better. could be supply chain or something being different. not sure.
They are open for breakfast at 4am when you need to get up early and no where else is open. They are close to the job site and everyone knows the menu already to send one person out to pickup lunch. Many reasons why one might go for mcdonalds even in a food mecca.
This is also the reason for Cheesecake Factory (which is actually good, unlike the other restaurants in its class.) It has everything, so if you take a group of people there won't be an argument.
“McDonald’s tapped Google Cloud in late 2023 to bring more computing power to each of its restaurants—giving them the ability to process and analyze data on-site. The setup, known as edge computing, can be a faster, cheaper option than sending data to the cloud“
It sounds like McDonald's going back to the way it used to operate.
I knew a guy who used to repair the PDP-11's under the counters that ran each restaurant. He said the #1 failure mode was soda spilled in the machines.
I thought the recent news that McDonald's is no longer the largest fast food chain on the planet by number of locations was more interesting. Dethroned by a China's Mixue bubble tea franchise.
By number of locations, the top 5 are: Mixue, McDonalds, Starbucks, Subway, KFC.
By revenue (note sorting in that table seems to be sorting strings), the top 5 are: Starbucks, KFC, Burger King, McDonalds, Chick-Fil-A. I'm surprised to see Burger King ahead of McDonalds.
Aaaah, Subway. Used to be great, but an 8 inch sandwich(four pieces of cucumber wide) on an 11 inch piece of bread that has doubled in price, with the quality constantly dropping...I used to eat there every day. Not been for three years, now.
Subway is the closest place to buy food to my office, so I only eat there on days when I forgot to bring lunch and I'm pressed for time. That's always a bad day.
Isn't that an improvement? Normally firing staff would raise stress levels of the survivors, but in this case, the surviving staff remains at the same stress despite the decrease in headcount. Inevitably, it could just be two people at a location.
In my area, I can pay about five dollars more and get an equivalent meal from Five Guys. Why would I ever go to McDonald's when I can get a meal that I actually taste good. Especially something that should not be eaten that often.
The fries could be better, Cajun fries are much better than their plain fries
But in my experience the only people that dislike Five Guys are just complaining about price or are weirdly into In N Out or some other regional chain rivalry. Neither is actually complaining about the taste of the burger.
He’s not wrong. A quarter pounder with cheese and a large fry from McDonald’s is up to about $11. The same from five guys is $16. Which is… five bucks more. (Medium fries from five guys, which is more fries than the McDonalds large)
Crap tier fast food has gotten outrageously expensive. McDonald’s fry prices are up over 40% in 3 years
Did you check the prices, or did you look at a photo of a menu board? I checked the McDonald’s app for a pickup order in my city of 100k in a lcol area just now.
Quarter pounder with Cheese: $5.09
Large Fry: $4.29
The prices in the app are lower than if you actually order in store. Specials and coupons are only offered through the apps now. Actual store prices can be seen on the delivery apps or by just going to a store. You can't actually order online through McDonald's directly because they are trying to force the app on you.
But who actually wants the hassle of having an app for McD, BK, Subway, and other garbage where you're trading your data away, and giving everyday advertising space on your phone, for food that doesn't even taste good for a slight discount.
I think a big difference for low-income people is the cheaper end of the menu.
McDonald's (UK) has a hamburger for £1.19, or even a bacon double cheeseburger for £2.89. A happy meal is £3.89. You could reasonably feed the whole family for £20.
Five Guys (UK) charge £9.95 for their cheapest burger, and £12.25 for the bacon one. It's £4.35 for the cheapest fries and £4.45 for a soda. £20 covers one person's meal.
Fast food isn't really for low-income people. They /work/ there rather than eating there. It's just associated with them because the experience feels poor.
It's more for people who need or want the convenience.
The "slight discount" usually gets me get a pretty full meal for less than $10 and, on occasion, significantly less than that. Really depends on what specials they're promoting and how frisky I'm feeling.
And just turn off notifications to not get unwanted advertising. Don't really care if they know my food preference data since they would have it anyway if I pay with anything other than cash.
At least on android devices you don't even have the option to disable a ton of access to things like sensors.
That data they collect isn't just about ads either. They'll throw you a deal every once in a while to keep you handing over that data, but they're figuring out how much money you have, when you're most vulnerable to suggestion and least likely to resist, all so that they can adjust their prices just for you in order to make sure you're paying as much as possible.
Even with notifications turned off, everytime you open your phone and scroll past the M section on your phone they get free advertising. It may not seem like a big deal, but once you start seeing the gross incentives and manipulation so many of these companies do you begin to notice.
Plus what the other poster said with the massive data dump you're actually giving them.
And AI is telling people not to eat at McDonals. As more people outsource their health research to AI, long term, not sure this will go well for McDonald's.
