{
  "id": 9371096,
  "title": "McDonald's bets on hand-breaded chicken, AI drive-throughs to fend off Burger King",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/23/mcdonalds-bets-on-hand-breaded-chicken-ai-drive-throughs-to-fend-off",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-23T12:04:18.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Yahoo Finance",
    "slug": "yahoo-finance",
    "url": "https://finance.yahoo.com/markets/stocks/article/mcdonalds-bets-on-hand-breaded-chicken-ai-drive-throughs-to-fend-off-burger-king-120418093.html"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "McDonald's is making significant investments to regain market share and stay competitive against Burger King. At its investor day in Chicago, the fast food giant unveiled a plan to invest $8.5 billion through 2036, with roughly $5 billion of that investment set to be made by 2030. The company aims to improve restaurant technology, offer hand-breaded chicken, and bring back a 90s-style look to its restaurants. McDonald's strategic growth plan includes initiatives such as the \"Make it Golden\" commitment, which focuses on food, hospitality, and employee training. Additionally, the company is testing hand-breaded chicken, which is said to be beating the competition in taste and quality in Asian markets. McDonald's is also introducing bone-in wings and a smaller PlayPlace area to encourage family visits and increased spending. The company aims to improve its gross restaurant-level efficiency gains by 250 basis points, which is equivalent to about $100,000 in annual cash flow for the average US restaurant. McDonald's plans to deploy its suite of productivity improvements in phases and expects to update around $800,000 per US restaurant, with additional costs tied to sales-driving or productivity-driving initiatives.",
  "summary": null,
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}