Why buy a voice company?

The team at McDonald's said that speech recognition technology can make fast food "faster" and help the company get services to customers more timely.

McDonald's demand for voice technology can be traced back to the "drive through" culture in the United States. It is called "the country with wheels". Almost everyone in American families has a car. Many fast food restaurants are used to opening passages on the side of some buildings. Customers stop when they don't get off. They communicate with employees through walkie-talkies, order food and get food.

For some remote or late-night fast food restaurants that are open 24x7, people's demand for door and window service personnel is a good test. Appente's voice technology is very suitable for meeting the demand of "ordering food". In the past two years, appente has been committed to developing technologies that can understand "complex, multilingual, multi-accented and multi-project dialogue sequence". The acquisition is expected to accelerate McDonald's "through" customer buying experience, get faster, simpler and more accurate orders, and greatly reduce labor costs.

In order to meet the wave of technology, McDonald's even set up a new internal team named MCD Technology Lab, which said that it would expand its business in Silicon Valley and began to recruit a large number of related engineers, data scientists and technical experts. "Building our technical infrastructure and digital functions ... enables us to meet the growing expectations of our customers, while making it easier for our service personnel to serve our customers." Steve easterbrook, president and CEO of McDonald's, said in a statement.

In addition to attention, this year's golden arch layout in the technical field has also been expanded.

Dynamic field: the largest fast food restaurant acquisition in 20 years, with $300 million for machine learning.

Dynamic field is a technology company dedicated to the field of personalized recommendation. It usually cooperates with e-commerce, tourism, finance, media and other brands. Since its establishment, it has created a personalized online experience called Amazon style.

McDonald's said it will use this technology to create a more personalized program menu, which can be customized according to the weather, current restaurant traffic and trend menu items. When customers start shopping, the display can also recommend other products according to your selection.

The company also said that it had been tested in many locations in the United States in 20 18, and planned to conduct marketing in all parts of the United States in 20 19 before expanding into the international market. McDonald's also plans to integrate this technology into other digital products, such as kiosks and McDonald's mobile applications.

McDonald's is trying to improve its service through the most advanced AI technology. After acquiring the dynamic field, McDonald's quickly used its technology in more than 8,000 stores. It can create dynamic menus according to different times of the day or the weather at that time to enhance customers' desire to buy. McDonald's said that by the end of this year, the technology will be integrated into almost all air tickets in the United States and Australia.

Steve Easterbrook, president and CEO of McDonald's, said in a statement: "Technology is the key element of our growth plan, that is, speed, which can improve the customer experience." "Through this acquisition, we will expand our technology and data functions in the future and create more personalized experiences for our customers."

Pleshure: acquired10% shares for $5.4 million, hoping to have more personalized interaction with customers.

Pleshure is an application provider of McDonald's, which uses McDonald's in 48 countries to provide discounts and coupons for McDonald's customers.

At the end of March, McDonald's spent $5 million to buy a 0/0% stake in Plexure/Kloc.

The market value of plexure has shrunk by 80% since it was first listed in NZX's small nzax stock market in 20 12. A year ago, it won the title of "the best high-tech start-up" in the high-tech awards.

However, after McDonald's announced that it would buy a10% stake in the company for $5.4 million, its share price soared by more than one third to a peak of 44 cents in half a day.

As part of the acquisition terms, plexure will be prohibited from providing services to some fast food competitors of McDonald's, which previously included 7- 1 1 convenience stores. Steve Easterbrook, CEO of McDonald's, said that mobile applications play a key role in the company's business: "Allow customers to interact with us in a personalized and customized way."

Technology acquisition has brought tangible benefits to McDonald's.

The share price of McDonald's rose by 20.5% in 20 19, which is roughly in line with the increase of the S&P 500 index so far this year. But McDonald's share price rose nearly 35% last year, leading the market.

In July, Bob Derrington of Telesey Advisory Group reiterated his overweight rating on McDonald's and raised its target share price by $20 to $230. Prior to this, the company's second quarter performance was strong.

In addition to raising the price target, Bob also raised McDonald's earnings per share forecast in 20 19 and 2020, which was higher than the market. Bob explained: "The company's investment in technology will improve the operation of its system and further make it different from the fast food industry."

In addition, Bob said that technology investment and the launch of new products will bring sustainable sales growth to McDonald's, "which seems to lead the industry trend in the next few years."

Not only McDonald's, Domino Pizza, Starbucks and other catering companies are using technology to improve their business models, but also big data personnel and artificial intelligence are helping marketing. For example, the mobile application "My Starbucks Barman" launched by Starbucks can send voice commands or messages to the virtual barista to place the following orders. Although there are many subtle differences in each order, the AI system can also provide a differentiated customer experience.

The influence of AI on the catering industry is becoming more and more obvious. Companies that smell the first opportunity have begun to take action, and McDonald's large-scale acquisition has made a profit.