McDonald's announced last week that it is buying the AI company Apprente to automate drive-thru ordering. It will be interesting to see what they come up with and how they will revolutionize the drive-thru experience.
I have always been thinking of how the future would unfold in various areas including the drive-thru experience.
Imagine you are driving on the freeway around noon to meet one of your clients. Your smart car wakes up and asks if you would like to order lunch. The conversation goes this way:
Smart Car (SC) - Would you like to order some lunch? It is close to your lunch hour.
You - Sure. Why not? What is around here?
SC - There is a SubWay on your route.
You - Nah. Not today. Is there a McD?
SC - Yes, there is a McD on your route.
You - What are today's specials?
SC - There are no vegetarian specials today. Would you like to order the usual?
You - OK. Just add a chocolate milkshake to it.
SC - Chocolate milkshake. Small?
You - Sure.
SC - Placing the order. You will arrive at the McD in 8 mins and your order should be ready. Anything else I can do for you?
You - Play the next podcast in my queue.
SC - Certainly.
What happened here? The car is smart enough to figure out that you are on the road and it is your lunch time. It also looks up all the restaurants nearby. Especially the ones you frequent. It finds a place that is on your route, not the nearest one. It knows what you generally order at the various restaurants. It knows you are a vegetarian. It calculates the approximate time it takes to prepare the order (dependent on the order) and places the order at the location nearest to where you will be at that time. Even though there was a McD a minute away, it still places the order at the McD that is 8 mins away. It wants to reduce the wait time to almost nothing. It automatically takes care of paying the restaurant with the credit card attached to your application. It now knows that on certain days you prefer McD over SubWay. It also learned that you like to have chocolate shake with your veggie burger. The Smart Car keeps getting smarter everyday.
How did the customer engagement and experience improve?
You don't have to stand in line at the drive-thru. You don't have to speak to anybody to place your order. You don't have to wait for the order to be ready in order to pick it up. You are saving time and reducing pollution. The traditional drive-thru experience changes dramatically and the only thing needed is the pickup window.
As far as technology is concerned, everything is available. You just have to expose your geo-location to the app as well as the restaurants. The app tracks where you are, maps your location and route and determines the restaurants en-route. It places the order at the restaurant and notifies the arrival time. It also allows the restaurant to track your geo-location so they can be ready to deliver your order in time. Similar to how you track your Uber ride as it arrives to you. The technology is readily available. We just need to work with the restaurants that are ready to jump on the platform.
Waiting to see how the drive-thru experience will transform.