Client

McDonald's

Industry

• Food Service
• Company founded in 1940 in California, USA
• + 36,000 restaurants in over 100 countries
• Around 1,700,000 employees worldwide
• 69 million visitors around the world every day
• Present in Europe since 1971: the first restaurant opened in Zaandam, Netherlands
• Present in the UK and Ireland since 1974: today, it has over 1,450 restaurants, employing more than 135,000 people

Context

The project was developed to meet McDonald's needs in the UK and Ireland, two of the company's largest markets. This initiative reflects the company's commitment to offering innovative and personalised experiences to its customers in different geographical regions.

Challenge

With the aim of promoting interaction between families during visits to the restaurant, the main challenge was to create stories based on specific parameters defined by users, including up to 5 names of people of their choice, their location and where they are heading.

This concept required combining high technology with the creativity needed to develop engaging and captivating plots.

Solution

The answer to this challenge involved four essential steps:

1. Innovation with Microsoft Azure
   Using advanced features offered by Microsoft Azure (such as Data Factory, Data Lake, Web App, SQL Server and Key Vault), the team was able to build a robust and scalable infrastructure to support the project's needs.
   
2. Use of ChatGPT
   One of the most innovative aspects of this project is the use of ChatGPT to create personalised stories for families. This approach allows McDonald's to offer a unique experience to its customers, while promoting interaction between family members during restaurant visits.
   
3. Development of a C# algorithm
   The team developed a C# algorithm which, combined with artificial intelligence, makes it possible to create prompts with up to 3 story chapters, based on predefined plots, but randomly used. This approach makes it possible to personalise stories effectively, while ensuring an element of surprise for customers.
   
4. Use of Google’s Text-to-Speech
   Once the stories have been created, the text is converted into audio using Google's Text-to-Speech technology. This allows the stories to be narrated in a convincing and engaging way, providing an immersive experience for McDonald's customers.

Methodology

Agile.

Technologies

• Microsoft Azure (Data Factory, Data Lake, Web App, SQL Server, Key Vault)
• ChatGPT
• Text-to-Speech (TTS) Google

Timeline and resources

This project lasted 7 months. The team included 3 act digital experts, namely:

• 1 Project Manager.
• 1 Back-end Developer.
• 1 Front-end Developer.

Results and customer experience

The project developed for McDonald's UK and Ireland marked a significant advance in the integration of cutting-edge technology with creativity in order to provide a personalised customer experience. The infrastructure developed made it possible not only to respond to the customer's immediate needs, but also to become scalable to other markets.

A unique feature of this project is the ability to adapt the accent of the narration to the user's location, which gives a personalised touch to the stories, creating a stronger connection between the customer and the brand. Adapting to the local accent is proof of McDonald's commitment to providing an authentic and relevant experience to its customers in different parts of the world.