We live in a world where an increasing number of companies have started using machine learning to influence our decisions. Now it looks like even McDonald's is buying into artificial intelligence to persuade you to buy a few more items.

The fast food giant has acquired a machine learning startup called Dynamic Yield, and the company is said to use machine learning to “increase personalization and improve customer experience”. Well in simple terms, the company is going to use machine learning to sell you more things, really.

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Dynamic Yield is a tech company that specializes in recommendations based on machine learning. It uses complex algorithms to gather data about customers to generate recommendations.

According to McDonald's, the new technology would “instantly suggest and display” items based on things like weather, time of day, trending items, and more. You'll also see items based on what you've ordered already. So let's say end up pulling up on a drive-thru on a hot sunny day, the system might recommend a frozen treat to you.

It sounds very manipulative, yes, but that's what it's meant to do. It's McDonald's biggest acquisition in the last 20 years, and it's supposed to help them make you buy items you didn't know you wanted.

The company claims that it'll start implementing the tech with drive-thru stations before expanding to other platforms like kiosks, mobile app, etc. The plan is to start rolling this out across the United States in 2019, and then move to other international markets.