By Victoria Vesovski, Yahoo Finance
“Welcome to McDonald’s, can I take your order?” may soon sound a little different.
The fast-food giant [NYSE:MCD] is giving artificial intelligence another shot at the drive-thru as part of an $8.5-billion investment through 2036 to modernize its restaurants. This time, McDonald’s is rolling out Archy, an AI-powered system that can take orders, suggest an extra item and help make sure your Big Mac and side of nuggets actually make it into the bag.
"Archy is basically like another employee to us," one McDonald's worker featured during the company's Investor Day presentation said.
McDonald's has already taken one bite at AI ordering. In 2024, the company ended an earlier drive-thru experiment with IBM called Automated Order Taker after testing it at more than 100 restaurants. The technology struggled at times to understand customers and get their orders right.
Now, McDonald's is going back for seconds and betting its newest AI tool can do a better job and convince you to add the fries.
Meet Archy, the automated McDonald's employee
McDonald's says Archy is already performing better than those early tests. The company told Moneywise Archy is already taking real drive-thru orders in English and Spanish and getting them right more than 90% of the time.
The company described the test as part of its long-standing "test-and-learn" approach. The idea is that, with AI handling tasks like order-taking and several systems working together behind the scenes, employees can spend more time helping customers while restaurants run more smoothly.
That would be a meaningful change in a part of the fast-food business where AI implementation is minimal. A 2025 Intouch Insight study of AI-powered drive-thru visits found the technology got orders right 83% of the time, compared with 87% across the study overall. AI was faster, shaving about 21 seconds off service times on average, but customers were also more likely to have to repeat themselves.
McDonald's says Archy is already performing better than that. The company has also said customer satisfaction at restaurants testing the system is running above national trends.
Archy is part of a much larger system called ArchIQ. Think of Archy as the voice taking your order, while ArchIQ is doing more of the work behind the counter. The company claims the system can help restaurants track inventory, build employee schedules and even use scales to catch missing items before an order reaches the customer.
McDonald's has been working with Google since 2023 on the technology behind that system, with a broader U.S. rollout expected in 2027.
A much bigger makeover
Archy may be getting the attention, but McDonald's big plan stretches beyond the drive-thru.
The investment comes at a tricky time for fast food. Years of higher prices have made customers more selective about eating out, and CEO Chris Kempczinski has said McDonald's expects inflation and relatively flat restaurant traffic to remain part of the picture.
The broader strategy, called McDonald's > NEXT, goes beyond changing the voice taking your order.
As Moneywise reported earlier, McDonald's is also rethinking its menu as customers look for more protein, smaller portions and meals that don't leave them feeling like they need a nap afterward.
The restaurants are getting a makeover, too. McDonald's requires franchisees to remodel locations roughly once a decade, and its newest designs are expected to include updated PlayPlaces, more open kitchens and a better view of McCafe drinks being made.
Investors weren't immediately sold. McDonald's shares fell about 6% in afternoon trading after the strategy was announced, adding pressure on the company to prove its investment can eventually pay off.
The AI gold rush
McDonald's is making its bet on Archy as companies everywhere try to figure out whether AI can actually improve their bottom lines.
According to McKinsey's The State of AI in 2026, nearly nine in 10 respondents say their organizations now regularly use AI in at least one business function. But turning that adoption into actual profit is proving harder: 80% say AI has improved their individual productivity, while just 37% report that it has contributed to their organization's earnings before interest and taxes.
There's plenty of money riding on that experiment. Goldman Sachs estimates major tech companies could spend roughly $527 billion on capital investments in 2026 as they continue building the infrastructure needed to power AI.
For McDonald's, the AI bet is much closer to the cash register. If Archy can save labor hours, reduce mistakes and nudge customers to spend a little more, those small gains could add up quickly across thousands of locations.
The real test is whether the technology can actually deliver. If AI can figure out your order before McDonald's figures out how to keep every McFlurry machine running, that may be progress.
This article originally appeared on Moneywise.com under the title: McDonald's is spending $8.5 billion to put an AI called Archy in drive-thrus — even after its first attempt failed
McDonald's Stock Has Pulled Back From Its Highs. Is It a Buying Opportunity?
McDonald's (NYSE: MCD) recent sell-off looks more like a buying opportunity than a reason to avoid the stock. As of Sept. 28, shares were at a 52-week low, down about 31% from the high of $341.75 they hit this spring.
The near term could stay bumpy as the business navigates a weak macroeconomic backdrop and searches for ways to reignite sluggish sales growth. But with the stock now trading at a modest price-to-earnings discount and offering a generous dividend yield, investors who buy in today could see solid returns.
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Execution, not the brand, is to blame for slow U.S. comparable sales growth
The stock has been sliding again since the company reported weakening sales growth in its most recent quarter. Global comparable sales grew 1.3% year over year. The U.S. market was the main soft spot, with comparable sales up just 0.8%. This is down from a stronger global comp increase of 3.8% year over year in the first quarter, and a solid U.S. comp increase of 3.9%.
"We simply didn't execute at the level we needed to in the second quarter," CEO Chris Kempczinski said during the earnings call on Aug. 4.
Kempczinski pointed to the withdrawal of several digital offers and the Buy One, Add One program. Those changes hurt traffic and dragged on U.S. comps sales in an already weak consumer spending environment. The tepid results prompted the company to push back its 50,000-restaurant goal to 2028.
All of this has been weighing on the stock, but these look like fixable, near-term issues -- not signs of a broken brand.
McDonald's to invest $5 billion in its ArchIQ AI restaurant system
More than 70 million customers visit McDonald's each day, and nearly 220 million people are signed up for the company's app and loyalty program. That gives it a massive customer base to monetize -- meaning menu and operational improvements can translate quickly into profitable growth at scale.
The company's "NEXT" growth strategy aims to improve food quality and restaurant operations. By the end of 2030, the company plans to invest $5 billion to accelerate deployment for "ArchIQ," its AI-powered restaurant operating system. The goal is to free up crew hours, boost productivity, and help teams spend more time on customer satisfaction and food preparation.
Health trends pose a real risk to the chain's business model, especially the growing use of weight-control treatments like GLP-1s. Management is not running from that headwind, but addressing it head-on. It's an opportunity, as 84% of households that include GLP-1 users visit McDonald's, according to the company's September 2026 Investor Day presentation. So the chain plans to cater to these customers' needs by offering more protein options and portion flexibility.
The stock's decline has brought its price-to-earnings multiple down to 19, well below its 10-year average P/E of around 26. Investors who buy at the current share price are also getting a dividend yield of about 3.2%, supported by earnings and free cash flow.
If management can improve its U.S. traffic trends and execute on its NEXT strategy, which has the potential to fuel higher margins through AI initiatives, today's lower price could look like a strong entry point five years from now.
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McDonald’s Reveals How AI Helps Set The Price Of Your Big Mac
By Jack Robbins, Yahoo Finance
McDonald's has turned to artificial intelligence to help it with menu prices across the U.S. and some global markets.
But the decision has caused some controversy and not gone down well with all customers, who have noticed price differences occur in some restaurants within the same town.
According to a Reuters report published on Tuesday, September 29, one of the key factors involved is AI estimating how much diners in each store are willing to pay.
The fast-food giant has a pricing engine that uses algorithms to analyze data from millions of daily transactions across nearly 14,000 McDonald's restaurants in the U.S. AI then generates what the company calls "the optimal price" for each individual restaurant and even for each menu item, everything from soft drinks to Big Macs.
For their report, Reuters reviewed screenshots of the company pricing engine taken in August and interviewed multiple sources with knowledge of the new strategy.
The McDonald's mobile app showed a number of price differences In September during the investigation.
A company-run store in Fresno, California sells a Big Mac for $5.69, but another restaurant two miles away sells the same sandwich for $6.89, which is a 21% premium. Reuters could not confirm if the price difference is the result of the price engine's recommendations or other factors.
But five store owners told Reuters the company had pressured them to use the AI-pricing tools.
McDonald's said in a statement that store costs and other factors vary across the franchise, and that each restaurants can belong to distinct markets even when restaurants are close by.
They added that the pricing portal is "a tool, not a mandate, designed to provide restaurant-specific recommendations to help franchisees deliver value for customers and make informed business decisions."
The company also described Reuters reporting as "speculative and uninformed" claims that "attempt to recast a standard business practice as something controversial."
McDonalds, which also announced plans to change it's look this week, is not alone in using AI in this way.
Yum Brands, the world's largest restaurant company, which owns the KFC and Taco Bell brands, is also using the technology. They did not respond to Reuters request for comment.
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