TheStreet’s Conway Gittens brings you the biggest news of the day, including what investors are watching and why McDonald’s is ending its AI endeavor for now.
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00:00I'm Conway Gaines reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.
00:02Here's what we're watching on the street today.
00:05Investors were focused on the consumer
00:06in a pre-holiday thinned trading session.
00:09A jump in May retail sales was not as big as expected.
00:13Consumers are spending, but at a decelerating pace.
00:17Stubbornly high inflation and a Federal Reserve
00:19that's keeping interest rates at their highest point
00:21in nearly two decades are both eroding consumer spending
00:25power.
00:26Markets are closed Wednesday for the Juneteenth holiday.
00:30In other news, the rollout of any new technology
00:32can be marred by mishaps, and AI is no exception.
00:36McDonald's is pulling the plug on a trial run
00:39using AI to take orders at the drive-thru.
00:41The two-year test will stop in July,
00:43and the AI voice recognition technology powered by IBM
00:47will be yanked, according to a memo sent to franchisees
00:50seen by trade publication Restaurant Business.
00:53According to the report, the recognition technology
00:56wasn't very good at recognizing customer orders,
00:59resulting in some zany, viral-worthy mishaps
01:01at the drive-thru.
01:03The system is being tested in more than 100
01:04McDonald's restaurants in the U.S.
01:07Mason Smoot, the chief restaurant officer
01:09for McDonald's USA, told franchisees in that email memo,
01:13quote, while there have been successes to date,
01:16we feel there is an opportunity to explore
01:18voice ordering solutions more broadly,
01:20adding there will be, quote, an informed decision
01:23on future voice ordering solutions by the end of the year.
01:27McDonald's has moved slower than many of its peers
01:29when it comes to adopting AI at the drive-thru.
01:33That'll do it for your daily briefing
01:34from the New York Stock Exchange.
01:35I'm Conway Gittens with The Street.