Burger King has introduced an AI chatbot in its daily fast food restaurant operations. “Patty,” an AI voice powered by the OpenAI prototype, lives in employees’ headsets to collect data in “friendliness” and simplify workflow.
The bot is part of a new web and app platform, BK Assistant, designed to provide training and operational support. It’s expected to do everything from alerting managers about items that are no longer available to helping workers remember items on limited-time offers. It also analyzes conversations between employees and customers at the drive-thru window.
Burger King told NBC News Thursday that the BK assistant doesn’t listen to all of employees’ conversations, and the goal isn’t to “score” people or encourage workers to stick to scripts. The assistant, however, starts listening from the moment customers pull up to place their orders until their cars drive away.
The company said the system collects data points from employees’ interactions with customers, using keywords like “welcome,” “please” and “thank you” as signals to help managers understand service patterns, the company said.
“One way we started it was, you know, picking some keywords … but it was an iterative process about how to define friendliness,” Thibault Roux, Burger King’s chief digital officer, said in an interview.
“It’s really a coaching tool, right? To help you be more hospitable as an employee, and we’re going to help you with some of the operational flaws that might be a little complex,” he said.
The voice-activated headset is being piloted in 500 restaurants. Both web and app versions of BK Assistant are expected to be available to Burger King restaurants in the US by the end of the year.
