Together with McDonald’s and Binary Brains, we created an AI-driven digital Drive Thru. With an objective to increase average check and enhance overall guest experience at the restaurants. This solution was recently announced winner in a global Digital Signage Award. An award that honors outstanding campaigns, creative executions and technical innovations in the fields of digital signage.

The winning category: “Innovation: Technical Advances and Innovation in Management Software, Data Integration and AI”

Lisa Hemström, Nordic Business Manager for McDonald’s at Visual Art:

“It’s fantastic to work with such a brave client as McDonald’s. A company that makes sure to put their guests’, and franchisees needs and expectations in focus of innovation.

I am proud, and honored, by the trust they put in us as partner. And together we are creating solutions like this. Solutions where we are both digitizing the Drive Thrus, and also working with customized templates together with our CMS Signage Player.

Thanks to the AI-algoritm we are getting a result with local edge. Along with this, suggestions and offers are adapted to each specific location. So, the items showing on the menu is driven by local demands.”

Project summary

The team created a data-driven digital Drive Thru with an AI/machine learning algorithm with a hypothesis. As a result the solution should:

1. Drive average check – Both off-peak and peak hours
2. Increase add-ons smart (without adding operational time in the kitchen)
3. Activate the local data-driven customer meeting with locally adapted menus.

Our tech team were starting the project by creating templates, and preparing our digital signage software and also CMS Signage Player, to be able to integrate with Binary Brain’s AI-algorithm. The algorithm was trained for 3 months with the objective to show the best suitable and relevant offers throughout the day, adapted to the local restaurant and its customer flows.

The guests aren’t noticing any difference but gets optimized and more relevant suggestions depending on locally conditions, needs and behavior.

Selected restaurants in Sweden attended in the proof of concept, which was evaluated with POS-data analysis (with eye-tracking + algorithm) and latin square-methodology.

As a result, both tests were showing an increase on average check and add-ons, even though the algorithm only controlled parts of the menu in the first stage of the POC.

Partner in the projects: McDonald’s, Retail Academics and Binary Brains.