Burger King to use voice AI in headsets to monitor employee 'friendliness'
Feb 27th 2026
An OpenAI-powered assistant called Patty will live in employee headsets to help with tasks and flag specific phrases and tone so managers can track and coach on staff "friendliness," with a pilot in 500 restaurants and full US rollout planned by end of 2026.
- Burger King is piloting a voice-controlled AI assistant in 500 restaurants that listens to employee-customer interactions.
- The assistant, called Patty, is part of a new OpenAI-powered BK Assistant platform.
- Patty is trained to recognize phrases such as "welcome to Burger King," "please," and "thank you" and the company says it is iterating to detect tone.
- Managers can track a location's "friendliness" performance and use the system as a coaching tool, according to chief digital officer Thibault Roux.
- The assistant also provides meal prep and maintenance guidance and is integrated with point-of-sale systems to flag out-of-stock items and equipment issues.
- Burger King plans to roll the platform out to all US locations by the end of 2026.