The unusual and controversial initiative is part of a new pilot project in Burger King restaurants. Initially, AI will accompany employees of 500 premisesbut by the end of 2026 – it will be available in all branches in the USA, of which there are currently just over 6,500.
Artificial intelligence is here to stay built into devices used by employees to communicate with each other. Characteristic headsets, which have been a permanent element of equipment in restaurants focusing on quick service for several years, will gain new possibilities in this way. Thanks to this, the employee can obtain help at any time regarding the work he or she is doing – e.g. related to the preparation of a dish or the stock of a given ingredient. However, the solution also has a darker side.
BK Assistant, because this is the name of the implemented solution based on technology provided by OpenAI is also supposed to listen to the way employees communicate and then analyze it whether they are polite enough when talking to customers. Measuring how often they say polite phrases will determine which facility needs to work on better customer service and is intended to be a guide for managers as to what areas they should work on with their staff. Of course Burger King ensures that the data collected in this way will be anonymized and will not be in any way assigned to a specific employee, but it is no secret that obtaining such information is not an overly technically complicated activity.
Of course, this is not the first time we have heard about the growing temptation of digital control. It has been implemented in a slightly less invasive form for a long time in numerous call centers that record conversations with customers, but the appearance of similar solutions also in other industries raises understandable resistance. Some doubts also arise regarding privacy of people visiting restaurantsbut at this stage Burger King continues to implement technology in its premises.
