McDonald's reportedly mulls partial sale of AI unit Dynamic Yield

McDonald's is reportedly considering selling part of its artificial intelligence (AI) unit Dynamic Yield which was acquired in March 2019 to support the company's digital transformation efforts. Dynamic Yield is an AI-powered personalisation platform which McDonald's uses to provide personalised customer experience by varying its outdoor digital drive-thru menu displays. Using the technology, the fast food giant is able to show food recommendations based on time of day, weather, current restaurant traffic and trending menu items. Dynamic Yield's technology can also instantly suggest and display additional items to a customer's order based on their current selections.

According to Reuters, McDonald's is only considering selling the part of Dynamic Yield that works with other companies but no timeline has been set for the deal. Although a fully-acquired subsidiary under McDonald's, Dynamic Yield is still a standalone company which is allowed to have other customers on its own. The platform currently works with over 350 brands globally, including IKEA, ZALORA, and Sephora, according to its website. With the acquisition in 2019, which was reportedly the largest one signed by McDonald's 20 years, Dynamic Yield said it no longer had to worry about securing additional funding, and could focus on scaling operations and growth.

Meanwhile, CNBC reported that the potential sale "would be related to the third-party business" and not the work that Dynamic Yield does for McDonald's. MARKETING-INTERACTIVE has reached out to McDonald's about how the sale will affect its Southeast Asian operations. 

Separately, McDonald's has also recently unveiled a new packaging for its products globally. Done in collaboration with UK-based design agency Pearlfisher, the new packaging looks adopts a minimalistic look that highlight prominent features of the product within. This includes blue waves for the Filet-O-Fish packaging, melting cheese for its quarter pounder and cheeseburger packaging, and a yellow circle for its egg mcmuffin that signifies the egg yolk. According to Pearlfisher, each packaging is "identifiable, joyful and simple".

"With evocative, easy-to-understand graphics, McDonald’s’ new packaging is recognisable regardless of where in the world orders are being assembled, shared and enjoyed," the agency added. McDonald's Singapore has declined to comment on MARKETING-INTERACTIVE's queries regarding its new packaging, stating it will reveal more details when it is rolled out.

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