Story perspectives

ArchIQ AI Drive-Thru Expansion Brings Chicken Menu in 2027

By Drooid · Sep 25, 2026, 4:07 AM UTC · How we work

Summary

Story summary

McDonald’s unveiled an $8.5 billion NEXT plan, spending $5 billion by 2030 to remodel restaurants.
The plan adds chicken sandwiches, wraps, egg bites and bowls.
McDonald’s targets a 1.5-percentage-point rise in global chicken market share by 2030.
Hand-breaded chicken tested in 10,000 Asian outlets will expand to the U.S. and Ireland in 2027.
ArchIQ AI with Google runs Archy drive-thru ordering, saving 50 labor hours weekly and reaching 90% order accuracy.

History

Historical Context

In the late 1990s McDonald’s began testing self-service “E-Clerks,” and over the 2010s it added digital kiosks, AI-driven drive-through voice tech (Apprente, 2019) and a largely automated Texas restaurant (2023). Building on that trajectory, the September 2026 “NEXT” strategy, backed by a Google Cloud AI partnership, plans up to $8.5 billion of upgrades and the opening of 10,000 new restaurants worldwide by 2027.

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Story summary

McDonald’s unveiled an $8.5 billion NEXT plan, spending $5 billion by 2030 to remodel restaurants.
The plan adds chicken sandwiches, wraps, egg bites and bowls.
McDonald’s targets a 1.5-percentage-point rise in global chicken market share by 2030.
Hand-breaded chicken tested in 10,000 Asian outlets will expand to the U.S. and Ireland in 2027.
ArchIQ AI with Google runs Archy drive-thru ordering, saving 50 labor hours weekly and reaching 90% order accuracy.

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