Fast Food Giant Is Using AI to Make Sure Human Employees Say 'Please' and 'Thank You'

"Patty lives in the same headset employees use to take orders at the drive-thru. While workers talk to customers, Patty transcribes and analyzes the conversation in real time, paying close attention to specific phrases the company has defined as markers of friendliness, such as 'please,' 'thank you' and 'welcome to Burger King.' It then generates a politeness score for each interaction, which managers can see."

"Managers can compare politeness metrics against other data they already track, such as speed of service and order accuracy. Patty can also tell employees how to make items on the menu, reciting recipes for workers."

"A Burger King spokesperson told Entrepreneur that Patty is powered by an OpenAI base model layered with the brand's proprietary in-house architecture. The voice assistant is part of a broader AI-powered operations platform called BK Assistant, which can perform actions like automatically alerting managers to remove items from digital menus when a product becomes unavailable."

Burger King introduced Patty, an AI voice assistant integrated into employee headsets that monitors and analyzes drive-thru conversations in real time. The system transcribes interactions and generates politeness scores based on specific phrases the company defines as markers of friendliness, including 'please,' 'thank you,' and 'welcome to Burger King.' Managers can view these scores alongside other metrics like service speed and order accuracy. Patty also provides employees with menu item information and recipes. Powered by an OpenAI base model with Burger King's proprietary architecture, Patty is part of the broader BK Assistant platform, which handles additional operational tasks like menu management. The full BK Assistant platform will be available to all U.S. restaurants by the end of 2026.

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