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🤖 Burger King has launched a new AI in stores designed to keep an eye on the politeness of staff members
🍔 The “Patty” AI assistant can also help employees with meal prep
🗣️ It’s integrated with Burger King’s new PoS system, so it can alert managers about out of stock items or machines that are down for maintenance
✋ This is the upper limit of Burger King’s AI involvement in the drive-thru experience at the moment, though
Burger King has launched a proverbial war on politeness with a new AI assistant it’s rolling out.
According to The Verge, the fast-food chain is bringing a voice-enabled chatbot called “Patty” as part of a new overarching BK AI Assistant that will assist employees with meal prep and evaluate customer interactions for what Burger King calls “friendliness”.
As per Burger King’s chief digital officer, Thibault Roux, the company has compiled information from franchisees and guests on how best to quantify and measure “friendliness”, which has resulted in the chain training its AI system to recognize words and phrases.
Specific words and phrases that the assistant has been trained on include “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.” With this, managers can now ask the AI assistant how their specific franchise location is performing in regards to friendliness.
It’s designed as a “coaching tool”, according to Roux, who adds that Burger King is “iterating” on capturing the tone of voice for conversations to help add another layer to its measurements.
The “Patty” assistant is powered by OpenAI, and is designed as the voice of the bigger BK Assistant platform which combines data across kitchen equipment, inventory and drive-thru conversations. Employees will be able to ask the AI questions, such as how many strips of bacon are needed on a Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper, or how to clean the milkshake machine, for instance.
The AI assistant is also tightly integrated with Burger King’s new cloud PoS, or point of sale, system, so it can alert managers to issues such as a machine being down for maintenance and if an item goes out of stock.
As per Thibault Roux, “within 15 minutes, the entire ecosystem will remove it from stock — whether you’re walking into a restaurant to order from the kiosk, whether you’re going to the drive-thru, the digital menu board will be updated.”
This is about as far as Burger King is willing to go when it comes to AI in the drive-thru, though, as they’re still only “tinkering with it” and “playing around with it” as “not every guest is ready” for AI to be fully involved with the drive-thru process.
The BK Assistant web and app platform is planning to launch in all restaurants in the US by the end of 2026, while the “Patty” AI assistant is piloting in 500 restaurants.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.
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