Burger King to roll out AI headsets monitoring ‘friendliness’ of staff

Burger King is introducing a new AI assistant that is capable of monitoring the “friendliness” of the fast-food chain’s employees.

Burger King is testing out AI headsets that monitor the “friendliness” of employees.

The AI system, called BK Assistant, comes up with “friendliness scores” at the fast-food chain’s branches based on staff conversations, according to a promotional video from the company.

Burger King is currently piloting the scheme at 500 restaurants in the United States, a spokesperson for the company revealed.

The chain has stressed that the tech is not designed to “record conversations or evaluate individual employees”.

An AI chatbot known as “Patty”, which is embedded in the headsets, answers questions from employees regarding how to prepare menu items and flags when a product needs to be restocked.

However, its ability to monitor the activities of staff has sparked debate about surveillance.

Burger King’s chief digital officer Thibault Roux revealed to The Verge that the fast-food chain had trained the system, which is powered by OpenAI, to identify terms including “please” and “thank you” to evaluate the friendliness of staff.

The system also analyses audio from drive-thru interactions.

A company spokesperson told the BBC that all Burger King employees are set to have access to the BK Assistant platform by the end of the year.

The chain’s parent company Restaurant Brands International says the tool is “designed to streamline restaurant operations” to allow managers and staff to “focus more on guest service and team leadership”.

A promotional video for the AI assistant sees the “Patty” chatbot informing an employee that they are running low on Diet Coke , while another staff member asks the bot for a recipe reminder.

However, the video showcases an element of the tech that has sparked an online backlash – the ability to closely monitor employee behaviour.

The “Patty” chatbot tells an employee: “The team’s friendliness scores this morning were the highest this week.”

Burger King explained that it had explored “using aggregated keywords, such as common hospitality phrases” to understand the overall service being offered and to “recognise teams who deliver great hospitality”.

The company said: “We believe hospitality is fundamentally human. The role of this technology is to support our teams so they can stay present with guests.”