• by Tanya Gazdik , March 8, 2026

Burger King is using an AI chatbot inside of employee headsets to monitor if their language is polite. 

“The voice-enabled chatbot, called ‘Patty,’ is part of an overarching BK Assistant platform that will not only assist employees with meal preparation but also evaluate their interactions with customers for ‘friendliness,’” according to The Verge.  “The OpenAI-powered Patty serves as the ‘voice’ of the BK Assistant platform, which combines data across drive-thru conversations, kitchen equipment, inventory, and other areas of the Burger King business. Employees can ask Patty questions, such as how many strips of bacon to put on a Maple Bourbon BBQ Whopper, or for instructions on how to clean the shake machine.”

The company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness.

“Burger King has tracked aggregated keywords such as ‘welcome,’ ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ at a limited number of pilot locations to help managers understand overall service patterns, the company said,” according to USA Today. 

The technology also has been used to alert managers to automatically remove items from digital menus and the Burger King app when a product becomes unavailable and analyze drive-thru audio to promote order accuracy and provide coaching insights.

Burger King says the BK Assistant won’t listen to all of employees’ conversations and that the goal isn’t about “scoring” people or encouraging workers to stick to scripts. 

“The assistant will, however, begin listening from the moment customers pull up to place their orders until the point when their cars drive away,” according to NBC News. 

Not everyone is a fan.

The new executive director of the AFL-CIO's Technology Institute, Lauren McFerran, said that what Burger King is planning is part of a larger trend in the workplace toward using AI for employee surveillance, according to CNET. 

"Workers across the economy are being subjected to invasive and dehumanizing monitoring that underscores the need for strict and enforceable guardrails," McFerran said. "AI should be used to make jobs better and safer, not as an invasive tool to harm working people." 

The voice-enabled headset is being piloted in 500 restaurants. Both the web and app versions of BK Assistant are expected to be available to Burger King restaurants in the U.S. by the end of the year.