McA.I.

Mickey D’s and Google have revealed an extensive, global collaboration for a multi-year partnership aimed at integrating Google Cloud technology across its numerous restaurants worldwide.

Photo: 94.9 HOM

Brian Rice, McDonald’s Executive Vice President and Global Chief Information Officer, expressed optimism about the growth potential in their digital business. He emphasized that the partnership with Google Cloud empowers McDonald’s to leverage its size and scale, enabling the development of capabilities and the implementation of solutions at unprecedented speeds. By connecting McDonald's restaurants globally to millions of datapoints within its digital ecosystem, the company aims to enhance operational efficiency, improve customer experiences, and empower its workforce.

As a core component of this collaboration, McDonald’s plans to introduce substantial upgrades to its restaurant and customer platforms. This includes enhancements to its popular mobile app, serving as the gateway for its rapidly expanding loyalty program with 150 million members. Additionally, improvements will extend to the thousands of self-service kiosks deployed in McDonald’s restaurants worldwide. With a unified and consistent approach, McDonald’s anticipates deploying innovations more rapidly and with greater agility. Google Cloud's edge computing will play a pivotal role, bringing information storage and high-powered computing directly into individual restaurants.

The deployment of Google Distributed Cloud, a comprehensive hardware and software solution, is slated for thousands of McDonald’s restaurants. This deployment will enable these restaurants to leverage both cloud-based software applications and locally hosted software and AI solutions, providing flexibility as needed.

Through Google Cloud's edge computing capabilities, McDonald’s aims to gain new insights into equipment performance, implement solutions to reduce business disruptions, and simplify tasks for restaurant teams. McDonald’s is poised to be the largest global foodservice retailer utilizing Google Distributed Cloud's new capabilities, with plans to commence hardware and software upgrades for thousands of restaurants in the coming year.