McDonald’s plans to expand its use of artificial intelligence across its restaurants, deploying a new operating system designed to take drive-thru orders, monitor inventory, improve equipment reliability and catch inaccurate orders.
The fast-food company unveiled the technology, called ArchIQ, during its Investor Day presentation Wednesday.
Jill McDonald, McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief restaurant experience officer, said the system will become a central component of the company’s broader “Next” growth strategy.
That strategy focuses on improving restaurant operations, upgrading menu offerings, modernizing locations and strengthening the experiences of employees and customers.
Brian Rice, McDonald’s executive vice president and global chief information officer, said ArchIQ will combine automation, diagnostic tools, predictive alerts and employee coaching within one platform.
One of its most visible features will be Archy, a voice-powered AI system that can take drive-thru orders in English and Spanish.
Rice said Archy has achieved accuracy exceeding 90 percent during early testing. Customer satisfaction at restaurants using the technology has also surpassed national trends, according to the company.
McDonald’s estimates that using the voice assistant could free at least 50 employee labor hours per restaurant each week. The company said the technology would allow employees to devote more attention to preparing food and serving customers.
Executives did not announce layoffs or say Archy would completely replace human drive-thru employees.
ArchIQ will also automate inventory counting through Bluetooth Low Energy tags, allowing restaurant employees to monitor supplies in real time.
McDonald’s estimates that the inventory system could save approximately five labor hours per restaurant each week while reducing food waste by 15 percent.
Connected kitchen equipment and computer-vision technology will allow restaurants to identify maintenance problems before equipment fails. Rice said those tools could produce an approximately 50 percent improvement in the availability of important equipment and menu products.
McDonald’s also plans to connect ArchIQ with special scales designed to verify order accuracy.
The company expects the scales to check millions of orders daily and allow employees to catch and correct approximately 10 percent of inaccurate orders before they reach customers.
ArchIQ is powered by a digital infrastructure McDonald’s has spent several years building.
The company partnered with Google in 2023 and has since installed Google Edge technology in thousands of restaurants across seven major markets. McDonald’s expects to introduce that technology in US restaurants in 2027, per Restaurant Dive.
The company has also developed a standardized point-of-sale platform and a central collection of restaurant data. Rice said more than 46,000 locations generate billions of data points daily, allowing AI systems to make rapid operational decisions.
McDonald’s previously described its digital transformation as an effort to use the company’s global reach and restaurant data to improve operations at every level.
A complete rollout date for ArchIQ has not been announced.
McDonald said deployment would depend on whether individual restaurants meet the company’s technological and operational requirements.
The initiative represents McDonald’s latest attempt to incorporate AI into its drive-thrus. The company began testing automated voice ordering with IBM in 2021 but ended that partnership in 2024 after the technology encountered accuracy problems.
Other major restaurant chains are pursuing similar systems. Yum Brands has expanded AI technology at Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut, while Burger King has introduced a voice assistant called Patty to help employees manage orders, inventory and kitchen equipment.
McDonald’s said ArchIQ is intended to simplify restaurant operations while allowing employees to focus more heavily on customers.
