Burger King cooks up AI chatbot to spot if employees say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’

From hospitality workers to retail employees, the exaggerated “customer service voice”, often mocked in internet memes as wildly different from someone’s real voice, has long been a cultural trope. Fast-food giant Burger King is now taking that voice one step further, saying it will detect whether employees are using words like “please” and “thank you” through the assistance of artificial intelligence.On Thursday, Burger King announced it is rolling out a new AI chatbot connected to employee headsets at hundreds of locations in the US as part of a platform called BK Assistant, powered by OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT.“Patty”, what Burger King is calling its voice-enabled chatbot, will detect whether employees are using specific words when interacting with customers, including “welcome”, “please” and “thank you”. The move is intended to “help managers understand overall service patterns”, according to a statement by Burger King.The announcement has caused backlash online, with social media users calling the move “gross” and “peak late-stage corporate behavior”.By way of clarification, a Burger King spokesperson said: “It is not designed to track nor evaluate employees saying specific words or phrases.“BK Assistant is a coaching and operational support tool built to help our restaurant teams manage complexity and stay focused on delivering a great guest experience,” the spokesperson added. “It’s not about scoring individuals or enforcing scripts. It’s about reinforcing great hospitality and giving managers helpful, real-time insights so they can recognize their teams more effectively.”Other functions of the overall platform supported by artificial intelligence include alerting managers to automatically remove items from digital menus and the Burger King app when a product becomes unavailable. It will also help employees with preparing menu items, such as telling them which ingredients go into a Whopper once an order has been placed. According to a promotional video, “Patty” can also let workers know whether the bathroom at their location needs to be cleaned.The platform will also listen in on employee interactions with customers ordering at the drive-thru “to promote order accuracy and provide coaching insights”.The BK Assistant platform will be available to all US locations by the end of 2026. The voice-enabled headset is currently being piloted in 500 restaurants.The rollout comes more than a year after McDonald’s ended its artificial intelligence endeavors at drive-thrus, removing their automated AI voice responding to customer orders from more than 100 locations.