in 1948 McDonald's had its first big
technological breakthrough it offered a
simple menu of hamburgers and soft
drinks all produced quickly and cheaply
on a custom assembly line
this innovation helped spark the six
hundred billion dollar modern fast-food
industry and one of the most iconic
brands of all time in 2013 earnings
began to stagnate as diners deserted the
golden arches for new burger upstarts
two years later Steve Easterbrook came
on as CEO to help reverse porce by
pushing McDonald's to take its next big
tech leap so far his plan seems to be
working at some locations orders placed
on the McDonald's app are automatically
prepared the moment a customer comes
within 300 feet of the store over in the
drive-through lane the company is
testing technology that can scan your
license plate and suggest food based on
previous orders or shape the menu based
on the day's weather from touchscreen
kiosks inside the stores diners can
customize their burgers into thousands
of different variants McDonald's is
adopting the approach of Amazon Facebook
and Google by using technology to
personalize the consumer experience
powered by this data it's not crazy to
expect the McDonald's will someday know
that you want a Big Mac without onions
large fries and an Oreo McFlurry even
before you do
[Music]