Burger King is testing an artificial ielligence-powered headset system that monitors warehouse inveory, reports operational problems, and even looks for signs of customer friendliness in employees.
Restaura Brands Iernational, the owner of Burger King, has announced that it has implemeed this system based on OpenAI technology in 500 branches in the United States on a trial basis. The assista, named Patty, speaks directly to employees through a headset and gives them real-time instructions. This action is considered one of the most ambitious experimes of artificial ielligence in the fast food industry this year.
Differe tasks of AI Burger King
Patty operates through employee headsets and is connected to store systems. This system helps manageme and employees in many cases. In the coext of inveory manageme, if a product runs out, Patty notifies the managers. Or if a customer reports a dirty bathroom by scanning a QR code, managers will receive an immediate alert.
Employees can also ask Patty operational questions, such as how to prepare a particular sandwich or cleaning procedures. Employees can also instruct the AI to remove items that have run out of ingredies from digital menus.
However, according to The Verge, the duties of this system do not end with operations. Burger King is testing the Patty as a tool for hospitality education. More specifically, this AI tracks employees’ use of key phrases such as “welcome,” “please,” and “thank you.”
Burger King announced in a stateme to the AP news agency:
“Our goal is not to score people or force them to use predetermined texts; Rather, the goal is to enhance hospitality and provide managers with real-time insights so they can better appreciate their teams.”
However, the regulatory aspect of this technology has caused surprise and concern. Company executives have said that they are also working on the “voice tone recognition” feature.
Of course, Burger King is not alone in this direction. Yum Brands (owner of KFC and Pizza Hut) partnered with Nvidia last year to develop artificial ielligence tools, and McDonald’s previously tested an automated ordering system with IBM and is now working with Google.
