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Prospective McDonald's employees can now be directed to start an application via voice commands with Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant, reports the AP.
Why it matters: The recruiting move helps McDonald's stand out in a U.S. labor market that has an unemployment rate of 3.7%. McDonald's is the first direct employer to use such a technology, which it developed itself.
The big picture: The fast food giant is trying to use tech to streamline every aspect of its business model.
- McDonald's CEO Steve Easterbrook wants to turn the fast food chain into "the Amazon of excess sodium" by leaning into improved delivery technologies and machine learning, writes Bloomberg Businessweek.
- Some franchisees have "balked at the costs of implementing [Easterbook's] vision, which includes drive-thrus equipped with license-plate scanners (the better to recall one’s previous purchases) and touchscreen kiosks that could ultimately suggest menu items based on the weather," per Bloomberg.
State of play: "Only a handful of other companies in the S&P 500, almost all of them California technology suppliers such as semiconductor giant Advanced Micro Devices and chipmaker Nvidia, have outperformed McDonald’s returns since" Easterbrook's ascension to the top job in 2015.