“Here is your big mac meal”

“but I ordered a McChicken sandwich”

“don’t worry, our AI suggested swapping your order because it predicted you actually prefer chicken based on your order history which it got from facial recognition when you walked in so we started preparing it before you ordered which also meant we’d get your order out 9.4 second faster! Isn’t it so clever, eh?”

“what about my drink, I didn’t order diet coke?”

“we gave you diet because our AI indicated that you probably have diabetes based on body weight analysis and McDonald’s is committed to healthy eating as well as maximising profits”

“I want to talk to the manager.”

“the manager was replaced by AI last month, corporate felt on site managers were one of the biggest expenditures for the branches and felt AI can offer more value. I’m sure the AI will be able to help you at that terminal over there. If not, we can escalate to the corporate AI which is authorised to offer 1% off coupons and has a slight antisemitism problem…”

“the terminal over there? The one with the queue 30 minutes long?”

“yep, that’s the one. Have a great day!! Oh it looks like our conversation took longer than the time we saved. Oh well, isn’t AI though”

Here’s what I don’t understand.

McDonalds has an app. McDonalds also does mobile orders like ubereats. Why not use your own app to allow ordering from the app, so you can be 5 minutes away, order, and when you get there it’s already paid for, you just pick it up.

It eliminates extra fees for customers willing to pick up their own food. It eliminates the line. It reduces the wrong orders (as most mistakes happen from the register worker not ringing it up right to begin with). And no AI needed.

Why is this so hard?