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  • Fast food giants have placed big bets on technology with the aims of getting a competitive edge,

  • with both well known and upstart restaurants getting in on the action. Bloomberg's Kaitlin Meehan has more on this story.

  • The automation wave has arrived, and it's wedded the appetite of your lunchtime favorites.

  • McDonald's is the latest fast food company to take advantage.

  • The burger chain has begun testing mobile ordering and payments in select US cities.

  • It says that all of its 14,000 national restaurants will be equipped to handle mobile preorders later this year.

  • But still, the creator of the Big Mac is a bit late to the party.

  • Other fast food chains nation wide have already adopted this kind of technology to help boost sales.

  • Dominos, for example, is the leader here.

  • For the past five years, the company's been emphazising all the ways you can order pizza,

  • with minimal human contact, maximal digital contact.

  • It's introduced more ordering methods through Facebook, Twitter, complete with emojis and the Apple Watch

  • And as the company builds up its tech cred, it's seen financial results.

  • Since the end of 2008, when Dominos was threaten by declining sales and distressed franchisees,

  • it's share price has increased 60 fold.

  • The company is now worth $9 billion.

  • Starbucks. Also an early adapter with mobile order and pay technology.

  • In the US, mobile ordering now makes up 7 percent of all company-own store transactions.

  • However, the company may be a victim of it's own success.

  • Customers who order drinks and food on their phones to pick up in store, are in some cases, seeing longer lines, resulting in lower traffic and sales.

  • One San Francisco based restaurant chain might offer a glimpse of the fast food future.

  • "Eatsa" is a highly automated food chain where all of the ordering takes places on iPads or mobile.

  • You pick up your order on a wall of glass doors cubbies.

  • There's no need for cashiers or servers, just a few human hands working behind the scenes.

  • The core premise is maximizing efficiencies, where this may lead is anyone's guess.

  • But all of the evidence are showing that we're marching towards a fast food world where human intervention is optional.

Fast food giants have placed big bets on technology with the aims of getting a competitive edge,

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