Burger King Cooks Up ‘Patty,’ an AI Chatbot to Monitor Employees
You’ll soon be able to get by at select Burger King locations with the help of an AI employee chatbot. As the company’s chief digital officer revealed in an interview with The Verge on Thursday, the fast-food chain is adding Patty, an AI chatbot, to headsets worn by some of its employees as part of a pilot at 500 locations later this year.
The Patty chatbot will help with work tasks, but will also monitor manners, ensuring employees use phrases such as “please” and “thank you” in interactions with customers.
“It’s supposed to be a coaching tool,” Burger King’s Thibault Roux told The Verge.
Patty, not to be confused with the Krabby Patty burger from SpongeBob SquarePants, will also perform tasks such as alerting the inventory management system when an item is out of stock. Patty is part of a larger AI-based system called BK Assistant that will be in all Burger King restaurants by the end of the year.
While Burger King will use AI in its headsets, Roux said he’s not quite ready to use the technology to take orders, although other fast food chains have tried. As AI appears to be taking over entire industries, businesses like Taco Bell discovered that deploying AI to hungry customers is much harder than it seems. An AI ordering pilot with McDonald’s ended in 2024, without success.
“Not every guest is ready for this,” Roux said.
Labor’s take on making burgers with AI
Not everyone is a fan either.
New executive director of the AFL-CIO Technology Institute Lauren McFerran said what Burger King is considering is part of a broader workplace trend toward using AI for employee surveillance.
“Workers across the economy are subject to invasive and dehumanizing surveillance that underscores the need for strong and enforceable safeguards,” McFerran said. “AI should be used to make jobs better and safer, not as an invasive tool to harm workers.”
