News

McDonald’s to acquire personalization and decision logic tech provider for menu boards and kiosks

March 25, 2019

McDonald's Corporation will acquire Dynamic Yield Ltd., a provider of personalization and decision logic technology, to improve its customer experience, according to a press release. 

McDonald's plans to use the technology to provide an even more personalized customer experience by varying outdoor digital drive thru menu displays to show food based on time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items. The decision technology can also instantly suggest and display additional items to a customer's order based on their current selections.   

This will enable McDonald's to be one of the first companies to integrate decision technology into the customer point-of-sale at a brick-and-mortar location. McDonald's tested this technology in several U.S. restaurants in 2018.

Upon closing of the acquisition, McDonald's will begin to roll this technology out in the drive thru at restaurants in the U.S. in 2019 and then expand to other international markets. McDonald's will also begin work to integrate the technology into all of its digital customer experience touchpoints, such as self-order kiosks and McDonald's global mobile app.    

"With this acquisition, we're expanding both our ability to increase the role technology and data will play in our future and the speed with which we'll be able to implement our vision of creating more personalized experiences for our customers," Steve Easterbrook, president and chief executive officer, McDonald's Corporation, said in the press release.   

Liad Agmon, co-founder and CEO of Dynamic Yield, said, "We started Dynamic Yield seven years ago with the premise that customer-centric brands must make personalization a core activity. We're thrilled to be joining an iconic global brand such as McDonald's and are excited to innovate in ways that have a real impact on people's daily lives."

Upon closing, McDonald's will become sole owner and will continue to invest in Dynamic Yield's core personalization product and teams. Dynamic Yield, based in New York and Tel Aviv, will remain a standalone company and employees will continue to operate out of offices around the world.