McDonald’s sells McD Tech Labs to IBM for a strategic partnership to automate drive-thrus

McDonald’s announced on Wednesday, Oct. 27, that it has teamed up with IBM to build automatic drive-thru lanes in its stores. The strategic partnership involves the software company’s acquisition of the fast-food chain’s McD Tech Labs that was formerly called Apprente.

The tech company’s name was changed when McDonald’s purchased it in 2019, and now it is being sold to IBM so it can help the restaurant in automating its drive-thrus. According to CNBC, the restaurant company did not reveal the financial terms of its deal with the Armonk, New York-headquartered firm.

The burger joint has been acquiring tech companies recently to improve its services. Having Apprente, the company thinks it will help them set up mobile and kiosk for automated ordering in the stores. This will reduce wait times, queuing and may allow outlets to operate with fewer staff too.

“As part of McDonald’s strategic growth plan, ‘Accelerating the Arches,’ the company is committed to innovation across Digital, Delivery, and Drive-Thru,” McDonald’s and IBM said in a joint statement that was published on Oct. 27. “This agreement will accelerate McDonald’s efforts to provide an even more convenient and unique customer and crew experience.

The statement further stated, “IBM’s expertise in building customer care solutions with AI and natural language processing will help scale the AOT technology across markets and tackle integrations including additional languages, dialects and menu variations.”

Restaurant Business Online further mentioned that once IBM acquires McDonald’s McD Tech Labs, it will help the latter with building its artificial intelligence capabilities. Aside from the voice-activated ordering feature, it will also hasten the development of automated order taking or AOT in drive-thrus. Other applicable technologies could also be developed through the agreement.

While the terms of the sale were not mentioned, McDonald’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, Kevin Ozan, told investors this week that the financial statement is not big. The acquisition is subject to regulatory approvals and is expected to close in December 2021. Finally, McDonald’s is looking forward to getting lots of benefits for both the customers and crew once new technologies are installed in the stores.