“Would you like human interaction with that?”: McDonald's goes mobile

Mobile ordering and payments are coming to McDonalds in 2017, meaning your interactions with pimple-faced teens will be dramatically reduced in the new year. Some McDonald’s restaurants have already begun installing self-serve kiosks and “smart” menu boards in the U.S., but table service and custom sandwiches are also on their way, Reuters reports.

Around 500 McDonald’s restaurants across the country have already got self-service kiosks, with other key markets making the changes in early 2017. Mobile ordering and payments will kick off in early 2017 as a pilot project and become the status quo in the second half of the year.

The changes come as McDonald’s tries to play catch-up with other fast food chains like Dominos and Starbucks who were early adopters of a mobile-first attitude. The company has already made sweeping changes to its ingredients to focus on a healthier contemporary image, including abandoning chickens raised with antibiotics and replacing margarine with butter and sugar with high-fructose corn syrup.

McDonald’s counter staff will reportedly not lose their jobs to ‘robots’ but will instead be redeployed to assist folks who have no idea how to operate the kiosks. Counter staff will also become servers to facilitate McDonald’s new focus on table service.

Ironically, McDonald’s USA chief executive, Steve Easterbrook, told Reuters “there is nothing more powerful than one-on-one customer experience” when explaining the addition of mobile ordering and payments to the McDonald’s app.

Are you happy to see McDonald’s modernizing? Or do you prefer real human interaction?