Newsom targets AI job losses as McDonald's expands automation

California’s top labor question is no longer just wages. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order on May 22 telling state agencies to look at ways to soften AI-driven job losses, from severance and subsidized employment to training, stock compensation and worker-owned business models.

That shift matters at McDonald’s because the chain has been moving deeper into digital transformation, including edge computing, AI-enabled restaurant systems and other technology built to make stores faster and more predictable. McDonald’s has said those investments should improve uptime, food quality and the experience for customers and crew. For workers on the floor, though, the immediate effect is less about marketing and more about how many people are scheduled, what jobs remain manual and which tasks get pushed onto the last crew left standing.

The clearest changes are likely to come in the parts of restaurant work that can be standardized. More automated ordering can reduce the number of people needed at the front counter. Predictive scheduling can turn hours into a data exercise, with managers relying on software to match labor to demand. Crew members may also be expected to do more with digital systems and equipment, from troubleshooting screens to working around connected kitchen tools that promise fewer mistakes and tighter timing.

That is where the job ladder becomes harder to read. If technology is used mainly to fill labor gaps, some workers may see the workload grow without much change in pay or advancement. If it is used to redesign roles, the company could trim headcount while creating a smaller number of more technical jobs. For managers, that is not an abstract policy debate. It affects how many people are needed on a shift, how quickly new hires can be made productive and whether a restaurant still offers a path from crew to crew trainer to shift leader.

California is also the state that has spent years at the center of fast-food labor fights, which makes Newsom’s order especially relevant for McDonald’s employees here. The same political environment that pushed minimum wage and labor protection battles is now asking what AI means for the job ladder. For McDonald’s workers, the takeaway is blunt: automation is no longer just a customer-facing feature or a back-office efficiency play. It is becoming a workplace issue that could shape hours, tasks and promotion paths long before it creates the new opportunities executives like to promise.