Burger King tests AI that tracks workers’ manners

Burger King

Flipping patties? More like flipping off Patty: Burger King is piloting an OpenAI-powered chatbot called Patty that will live in employees’ headsets and tattle if it thinks workers aren’t being friendly enough, the chain announced yesterday. “This is all meant to be a coaching tool,” Burger King’s chief digital officer told The Verge: The AI is trained to recognize words and phrases like “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.” Patty will then grade a location’s friendliness levels upon a manager’s request. Beyond pleasantry patrol, Patty voices an AI system that Burger King plans to launch widely by year’s end, because two patties on the grill are worth one in the ear, or something. The virtual assistant can answer employees’ questions (e.g., how to clean the shake-maker) and flag out-of-stock items or out-of-order machines. If only Burger King listened to public outcry over Patty’s launch like it listened to public outcry over its burger quality: The chain said yesterday that it would improve its Whopper for the first time in almost a decade after customers complained for years about it falling apart. Zoom out: Roughly 70% to 80% of large US employers use some type of employee monitoring as of last year, following a pandemic-era boom in demand for worker surveillance software.