The fast-food chain Burger King is implementing AI tools to track employee “friendliness” and help them manage inventory. The company has an ambitious goal of implementing these systems across hundreds of branches by the end of this year. However, the move is also seeing online backlash for its potentially invasive methods.
Burger King introducing AI chatbot to check employee ‘friendliness’
Burger King recently unveiled plans to monitor employees’ friendliness and service quality using its in-house AI tool, BK Assistant. This program will also include an AI chatbot called “Patty,” implemented in employees’ headsets (via BBC).
According to the company, Patty will analyze employees’ interactions with customers. It will also assist with other activities, such as managing inventory and providing recipe guidance. The company has assured that this tool will not be used to “record conversations or evaluate individual employees.”
Burger King claims that the tool is designed to help “streamline restaurant operations” and notify managers when the inventory is running low on specific items. Additionally, the chatbot is trained to detect hospitality-related words such as “please” and “thank you.”
During an interview with The Verge, Burger King’s chief digital officer, Thibault Roux, said that the AI chatbot will update the menu across the outlet based on the inventory. He added that the company is currently testing AI-based drive-thrus at roughly 100 locations. Furthermore, Roux noted that they are planning to implement BK Assistant across all its outlets by the end of this year and deploy Patty in at least 500 locations.
Meanwhile, the decision has garnered quite a bit of online backlash. NBC recently reported that people are raising concerns about fast-food chains replacing humans with AI. On the other hand, the move has helped the company’s stock price.
The network also showed several clips from fast-food places, including Taco Bell, where AI drive-thrus have caused more problems than not.
