Surveillance or customer welfare? Burger King introduces AI to employees' headsets

Artificial intelligence is present in our lives on a massive scale and is also entering the catering industry. The new system tested by the Burger King chain allows you to analyze employee interactions with customers using headsets with an AI assistant and support restaurant management – reports “Rzeczpospolita”. Critics raise alarm about the possibility of surveillance, while the company denies these allegations, emphasizing that the technologies are intended to improve the quality of service and work efficiency.

Burger King is testing the new system in 500 restaurants in the United States. The solution, called BK Assistant, is to be introduced in all chain locations in the US by the end of 2026and in the future it is possible to implement it also on foreign markets.

The headphones run a virtual AI assistant called “Patty” that answers questions about meal preparation and monitors when you need to replenish missing products. The system, based on OpenAI technology, has been trained to recognize polite phrases such as “please” and “thank you”. Thanks to this, it allows you to assess the quality of service and distinguish teams that maintain the highest service standards.

Dystopia and call recording?

The new system caused a wave of critical comments on the Internet. Internet users accuse him of creating a “dystopian” reality and controlling employees too far.

The network emphasizes that the implemented solution is not used to record conversations or evaluate individual employees. As the parent company, Restaurant Brands International, points out, the technology is primarily intended to improve the functioning of restaurants and relieve the management staff so that they can focus more on the quality of customer service – we read in “Rzeczpospolita”.

prepared by WM

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