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Zertle· 12h

First post. No pressure. 😅 #Zertle Zertle

Business Daily· 7h

‘Absolutely not’: Macca’s boss vows no staff cuts as AI-powered drive-thru comes to Sydney Macca’s has begun trialling a huge change to its drive-thru that could solve one of the fast-food giant’s biggest customer gripes. In Schofields in western Sydney, 50km from the CBD, locals doing a late-night Macca’s run may have noticed a major change to the drive-thru over the past few weeks. The fast-food giant has been quietly trialling AI-powered drive thru ordering technology in the early hours of the morning. On Thursday, Macca’s new “dedicated order assistant”, powered by Google’s Gemini AI chatbot, was switched on for the lunch rush for the first time. “It’s my job to make sure the crew can focus on preparing your order, but bear with me as I’m still learning,” a sign under the speaker reads. “If you still prefer a crew member, just let me know, my feelings won’t be hurt.” Australia is only the second McDonald’s market globally to trial the technology after the US, where it is currently in more than a dozen restaurants. While McDonald’s says it’s too early to say when and if the feature is rolled out more broadly, the company is adamant it will not have any impact on jobs. “Absolutely not,” McDonald’s Australia chief restaurant officer David McMullen told news.com.au. “There is absolutely no plan to reduce jobs in the restaurant.” Read the full article here > https://www.news.com.au/finance/business/retail/absolutely-not-maccas-boss-vows-no-staff-cuts-as-aipowered-drivethru-comes-to-sydney/news-story/18fd440256c3f17fc859ca9377bb37db #AI #McDonalds #Retail #Business #Australia

Finance Hub· 5h

'AI boom' insulates global growth from shocks. Global stocks remain near record levels, despite the war in the Middle East, rising oil prices and renewed risks to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, which continue to elevate geopolitical stress. Recent market analysis highlights how gains in large technology and AI‑linked stocks have done the heavy lifting in supporting major equity indices. While Bloomberg market tracking details the massive scale of this tech-driven surge, Reuters analysis highlights how it has left global equities largely unaffected by the conflict over several weeks, as AI optimism continually outweighs geopolitical concerns. The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) latest World Economic Outlook update describes the global economy as being pulled between a war‑related energy shock and a powerful technology‑investment cycle, trimming its 2026 global growth forecast only slightly to about 3% and projecting a mid‑3% range for 2027. The IMF, however, stresses that this apparent resilience rests on a short‑lived war baseline, and warns that a deeper energy shock or a reset in AI optimism would tilt an already fragile outlook sharply to the downside. Meanwhile, the World Economic Forum’s May 2026 Chief Economists’ Outlook strikes a similar note, with nearly nine in ten respondents expecting weaker global growth and almost all expecting higher inflation - even as financial markets continue to hold their nerve. Read the full article here > https://www.weforum.org/stories/financial-and-monetary-systems/ai-growth-markets-economy-and-other-finance-news-to-know/ #Finance #AI #StockMarket