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Accenture is expanding its long-running collaboration with McDonald’s to help the fast food giant upgrade its technology systems.

The deal has two main elements.

First, Accenture will help McDonald’s support the “acceleration of automation innovation from equipment manufacturers”. The companies didn’t elaborate, but it sounds like they plan to deploy more automation hardware at McDonald’s restaurants.

While Accenture and McDonald’s didn’t go into detail about technologies the the project will involve, they did share a glimpse into its goals. The companies have two main objectives: to “reduce complexity” for restaurant staff, which presumably means simplifying their day-to-day work, and to help managers lower the risk business disruptions.

The second focus of Accenture’s new consulting deal with McDonald’s is employee training. In particular, Accenture will equip the fast food giant’s global workforce with new tech skills via online courses, boot camps and other educational content.

The scope of the training initiative is unclear. Accenture might focus only on upskilling McDonald’s IT professionals and developers. Alternatively, the companies may be working on a broader professional development initiative that will cater to a larger portion of McDonald’s workforce.

The wording of the press release suggests the former possibility is more likely. Accenture says that it will work to equip McDonald’s staffers with skills in “AI, data and edge computing” – most of the fast food giant’s employees likely don’t require in-depth expertise in those three areas to perform their work efficiently. In other words, the training partnership most likely focuses mainly on upskilling McDonald’s technical professionals.

McDonald’s global CIO Brian Rice commented that “Accenture’s deep understanding of our business, our industry, and of course technology, will allow us to leverage the full potential of the cloud and generative AI solutions by implementing advanced practices to quickly leverage those technologies as well as to nurture and empower the talent within our organization.”

Another important question is whether the deal extends to McDonald’s partner network. Only 5% of McDonald’s locations worldwide are operated by the company itself while the rest are run by franchisees. If the deal with Accenture encompasses those franchisees, it’s likely to generate more revenue than a contract focused exclusively on the relatively limited number of restaurants run directly by McDonald’s. 

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