McDonald's wires kitchen equipment with sensors to predict breakdowns

March 2025 — McDonald's is giving its restaurants what the Wall Street Journal called a technology makeover, starting with kitchen machines that report on themselves. Here's what launched, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of March 6, 2025)

Scope: sensors are being installed on kitchen equipment, per the WSJ; rollout of edge computing to "some" U.S. restaurants began in 2024. (NACS)
Restaurant count: McDonald's declined to say how many have it, or when the rollout will finish. (NACS)
Partner: Google Cloud, announced Dec. 6, 2023. (McDonald's)
Cost: not disclosed.
Results: none published as of March 2025.

What launched

According to the WSJ, McDonald's has "begun installing sensors on kitchen equipment that will feed data to the edge computing system and give franchisees a 'real-time' view into how their restaurants are operating. AI can then analyze that data for early signs of a maintenance problem."

Rice named fryers and McFlurry ice cream machines as examples of equipment whose breakdowns the system could predict. Edge computing means processing data inside the restaurant rather than sending it all to the cloud. Rice told the paper it can be faster and cheaper, especially in far-flung locations with less reliable connections.

Why McDonald's says it needs this

"Our restaurants, frankly, can be very stressful. We have customers at the counter, we have customers at our drive-through, couriers coming in for delivery, delivery at curbside. That's a lot to deal with for our crew," Rice said. "Technology solutions will alleviate the stress."

The goal, per the WSJ, is better experiences for customers and workers "who today contend with issues ranging from broken machines to wrong orders." "If we can proactively address those issues before they occur, that's going to mean smoother operations in the future," Rice said.

The Google deal behind it

McDonald's and Google announced a multi-year global partnership on Dec. 6, 2023. Google Distributed Cloud, a combined hardware and software product, was to go into "thousands" of restaurants, with upgrades starting in 2024. The companies said it would give McDonald's "new insights into how equipment is performing" and help "reduce business disruptions." A Google Cloud team in Chicago was to work near Speedee Labs, McDonald's innovation center, on generative AI. McDonald's said it would be the largest global foodservice retailer to use Google Distributed Cloud's new capabilities (McDonald's).

McDonald's investor release the same day said the partnership would "help accelerate automation innovation from equipment manufacturers" and lead to customer benefits "such as hotter, fresher food." It also said McDonald's would begin deploying new universal software in 2024 that all its customer and restaurant digital platforms, from the app to kiosks, would run on. "We're focused on making AI more helpful for everyone," Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in that release. Neither release put a price on the deal.

Beyond the kitchen

McDonald's is also exploring cameras with computer vision to check whether orders are accurate before they are handed over, the WSJ reported. That was still at the exploring stage, and the WSJ summary gave no timeline or test locations for it.

What went wrong

No count. McDonald's would not say how many restaurants have the edge system or when the rollout ends.
No results yet. As of March 2025, the company published no figures on fewer breakdowns or saved repair costs.
Franchisees. The WSJ said franchisees get the real-time view; we found no published figures on what franchisees pay.
What we don't know yet: the cost, which equipment makers are involved and whether predictions have prevented outages.

Our follow-up question for McDonald's

How many U.S. restaurants have the equipment sensors now, and who pays for them, the company or franchisees?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

At its investor day, McDonald's said it had deployed Google edge technology to "thousands of restaurants across 7 major markets" and planned to complete the U.S. rollout in 2027, Constellation Research reported on Oct. 2, 2026. Constellation reported that CIO Brian Rice said predictive equipment management drives about a 50% improvement in equipment and menu availability in each restaurant. That is Constellation's paraphrase of a company figure, and no baseline or method was given. (Constellation Research)
McDonald's 10-Q for the quarter to June 30, 2026 still lists a 48% stake in Grand Foods Holding, the entity that runs its business in mainland China, Hong Kong and Macau; the CITIC Consortium holds the controlling 52%. (SEC)
McDonald's is deploying ArchIQ, which it calls an AI-powered restaurant operating system. It said ArchIQ builds on lessons from 8,000 restaurants in China, where a tool called Restaurant General Manager Boss is used, per Constellation. (Constellation Research)

Sources

NACS Daily, “McDonald's Adds AI Tools to Restaurants,” March 6, 2025 (summarizing the Wall Street Journal). convenience.org
The Wall Street Journal, “McDonald's Gives Its Restaurants an AI Makeover,” March 5, 2025 (paywalled). wsj.com
McDonald's, “McDonald's and Google Cloud Announce Strategic Partnership to Connect Latest Cloud Technology and Apply Generative AI Solutions Across its Restaurants Worldwide,” Dec. 6, 2023. corporate.mcdonalds.com
McDonald's, “McDonald's to Acquire Carlyle's Stake in McDonald's China,” Nov. 20, 2023. mcdonalds.mediaroom.com
McDonald's, “McDONALD'S ANNOUNCES NEW TARGETS FOR DEVELOPMENT, LOYALTY MEMBERSHIP, AND CLOUD TECHNOLOGY,” Dec. 6, 2023. mcdonalds.mediaroom.com
Constellation Research, Larry Dignan, “McDonald's strategy bets on AI, digital capabilities,” Oct. 2, 2026. constellationr.com
McDonald's Corporation, Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2026, filed Aug. 7, 2026. sec.gov

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder