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AI isn’t just a hot innovation in tech — the food industry is also investing heavily in this hot trend.
Americans heading to the grocery store or their favorite fast-food restaurant have likely already noticed new technology being implemented into services like self-checkout kiosks and AI ordering at the drive-thru.
As food inflation continues, American consumers are looking for bargains and changing their spending habits accordingly, while the food industry is trying to stay competitive by reducing high labor costs and investing in artificial intelligence to lower prices of some products.
For example, fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Taco Bell, and Wendy’s have reintroduced value menus, while big-box retailers Walmart and Target have lowered the prices of certain grocery items.
“In this environment, it’s very hard to achieve strong profits and sales and keep customers happy,” said Neil Saunders, managing director and retail analyst at GlobalData. “It’s a very tricky equation to balance, and I don’t think it’s ever going to be fully balanced unless the economy is on a different footing. That’s the reality.”
In this tough economy, McDonald’s announced plans to spend $2 billion this year to implement AI and robotics in its restaurants and drive-thrus, and research from the Food Industry Institute (FMI) predicts that grocers will spend $13 billion on automation technology in 2022. FMI expects spending on innovations like smart carts and improved self-checkout aisles to increase 400% by 2025.
“We expect AI and technology to be hugely beneficial over the next few years as it improves the experience for our customers and makes our team members’ jobs a lot easier,” said Joe Park, chief digital and technology officer at Yum Brands.
Watch the video Learn more about how the food industry is using AI to transform customer experiences.