Burger King is set to launch an artificial intelligence chatbot that will assess workers’ friendliness — and take note of whether they say “please” and “thank you,” according to a report.
The voice-enabled chatbot, named “Patty,” will live in employees’ headsets, helping them with meal preparation — but also judging their interactions with customers for “friendliness,” The Verge reported.
The fast food chain has compiled information from franchises and customers on how to measure friendliness, and then trained its AI system to recognize polite phrases, Thibault Roux, Burger King’s chief digital officer, told the publication.
The bot was taught that phrases including “Welcome to Burger King,” “please” and “thank you” are indicative of employee friendliness. Managers can also ask the AI how their location is performing on friendliness.
“This is all meant to be a coaching tool,” Roux said.
The OpenAI-powered “Patty” is the “voice” of the BK Assistant Program. The AI tool includes data from drive-thru conversations, kitchen equipment, inventory and other areas of the business, according to the report.
For example, employees can also ask Patty questions about how to make specific menu items, like the iconic Whopper, or how to clean certain kitchen equipment.
The AI is also integrated into Burger King’s new cloud point-of-sale system, meaning it can alert managers if a machine is out of order or if a menu item is out of stock. The system can also update the menu to remove items that are out of stock “within 15 minutes,” Roux said.
Even though the fast food chain is putting AI in its employees’ headsets, it is still testing AI technologies at its drive-thrus.
“We’re tinkering with it, we’re playing around with it, but it’s still a risky bet,” Roux said. “Not every guest is ready for this.”
According to Roux, the company is testing AI drive-thru technology in fewer than 100 restaurants.
Patty, the AI system, is being piloted in 500 restaurants. Burger King plans to launch its BK Assistant web and app platform to all U.S. restaurants by the end of the year. The Independent has reached out to Burger King to confirm and comment on the report.
Several other fast food chains have started to integrate AI into the workplace, including Taco Bell, which started to roll out AI-powered drive-thrus last summer.
The drive thrus use voice AI technology to help take and process orders. However, the taco chain reported some glitches at the program’s launch, and said in August it would slow down its rollout as it evaluates the system.
McDonald’s previously removed own AI-powered ordering tools from its drive-thru restaurants in the U.S. after customers shared similar experiences of the technology going wrong online.
Similar to Taco Bell, McDonald’s used the system extensively at over 100 locations. However, the Golden Arches pulled them after videos began to be shared online showing ordering mishaps.
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