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Burger King will use AI to check if employees say 'please' and 'thank you'

JeanKage

12 hours ago

https://www.theverge.com/ai-artificial-intelligence/884911/burger-king-ai-assistant-patty

unsupp0rted12 hours ago

Why not just use AI to say 'please' and 'thank you'?

duxupunsupp0rted12 hours ago

I think because you get the disjointed Idiocracy Carl's Junior interaction: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5d7SaO0JAHk

As it is when I go to some fast food places they greet you in one voice (possibly a central ordering system) and you get a second voice that interrupts (local people I suspect) and takes over. It's weird.

chrisjjunsupp0rted12 hours ago

Because the headset doesn't have a loudspeaker mode.

But V2 will! The "AI" will handle the whole customer interaction, with the human doing nothing but carrying it around on his head.

JohnFenunsupp0rted11 hours ago

As a customer, I'd find that actively offensive.

Those pre-ordering recordings asking if I'm using an app are already horrible enough as it is. Offloading basic human politeness to machines would be even worse.

elil17JohnFen11 hours ago

If someone is being forced by an AI to be polite to you, is it really still basic human politeness? Or is it some weird, different, corporate-hellscape-mediated thing

JohnFenelil177 hours ago

> If someone is being forced by an AI to be polite to you, is it really still basic human politeness?

No. That does strip the meaning out of it. I also object to Burger King's proposal.

But at least it's still coming from an actual person, even if they're forced to do it. That may not be much, but it's still better.

nathan_comptonJohnFen10 hours ago

I find making employees say please and thank you substantially more offensive.

rapnieJohnFen10 hours ago

Why not just have an AI to find that offensive, instead of you.

fanatic2popeJohnFen10 hours ago

Less offensive than a completely meaningless forced "please" and "thank you" coming from an employee who only does it because if they don't they are punished.

JohnFenfanatic2pope7 hours ago

Slightly more offensive to me. Not a lot more offensive, though, that's true.

moralestapiaJohnFen10 hours ago

As opposed to the satisfaction of watching a minimum wage worker being zapped by an AI-powered collar and mumbling "Th-tha nk you" as a result.

Yeah, that'd definitely be The Truly Sincere Experience™.

IntegrapeJohnFen10 hours ago

If the food at BK doesn't offend you, why would this?

chrisjjJohnFen9 hours ago

> As a customer, I'd find that actively offensive

You'd have already been screened out by "You rule".

freejazzunsupp0rted11 hours ago

Slightly less-worse take than "isn't it ultimately better if the employees are more polite?"

fancymcpoopoounsupp0rted10 hours ago

This is a better idea. Put the headset on a delay so AI can inject the requisite politeness. Construction workers don’t have to turn screws by hand so why shouldn’t service workers have a tool that helps them give great customer service?

duxup12 hours ago

When I used to do a lot of phone tech support and my employer hired a company to do customer satisfaction surveys. I got a 0 out of 5 on several occasions with the comment "Stop calling me at this phone number, I don't know who you people are.". Someone gave the wrong phone number to the survey company and they hadn't called the customer I worked with.

I was told by my managers there was nothing they could do about it because nobody was allowed to edit the total scores or remove obviously bad records because someone might do that for the wrong reasons. So I just had to live with it.

I have it in my head that a lot of these problems core issue is a lack of faith / effort in creating good front line management. At a food place a good front line manager keeps everyone going, the mood light, and can really make all the difference in the world, but rather lazy middle, upper managers, would slap some survey or metrics or AI on things.

In that way it's no really an AI issue, just the typical bad management issue.

>Because it’s integrated with the new cloud point-of-sale system, the AI assistant will also alert managers if a machine is down for maintenance or when an item is out of stock. “Within 15 minutes, the entire ecosystem will remove it from stock

If you're out of fries ... taking 15 minutes to reflect that on the menu doesn't seem very fast.

chrisjj12 hours ago

Why not have the "AI" headset also apply an electric shock to encourage friendliness?

pwdisswordfishychrisjj11 hours ago

Don't give them ideas.

joshstrangechrisjj10 hours ago

I used to work for a company that did "Electronic Monitoring", the nice name for monitoring people with ankle bracelets. One thing that never ceased to amaze me is how almost everyone I talked to about it or showed the device (I wore one occasionally for testing purposes) assumed or asked there was a way to shock the person wearing it.

I guess on the face of it that's not a crazy thing to think but I was always struck by how "normal" people seemed to think that would be. Maybe it's TV/Movies that have done something like that and make people think it's a real thing but more importantly (disgustingly?) that it's perfectly reasonable.

owlcompliancechrisjj10 hours ago

Burger King corporate here. We've already been working on that. Rollout is scheduled for Q2.

chrisjjowlcompliance9 hours ago

BK stockholder here. I'll vote for that ... provided the CEO wears his headset.

owlcompliancechrisjj9 hours ago

Just spoke with the board. Three things:

1. CEO has agreed to wear headset. However, does not want monitoring and accountability mechanisms in place; wants to move forward on the basis of trust.

2. In an expression of gratitude for your support, we have converted your stock holdings from class B to class A, increasing your voting power.

3. We're going to dilute the shit out of this stock.

chrisjjowlcompliance3 hours ago

> 1. CEO has agreed to wear headset. However, does not want monitoring and accountability mechanisms in place;

Best wear a Faraday cage too, then :)

ameliuschrisjj10 hours ago

Will the customer who is not smiling also receive a shock?

Ridiusamelius10 hours ago

-15 Social Credit Score for failing to saying please

chrisjjamelius9 hours ago

Sure! And the parrot too.

bediger400011 hours ago

And it won't make Burger King a better fast food joint at all. Employee compliance with rules is pretty obviously not what's wrong with BK.

randusername11 hours ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_(novel)

iugtmkbdfil834randusername11 hours ago

Yup. It is mildly funny how we were full steam ahead for building one too until, suddenly, investors realized it could wipe out their other investments..and then it kinda stopped. Instead, Gartner is listing universal orchestrator ( or whatever the official name was ) as a path forward.

kotaKatrandusername10 hours ago

I always thought we were a step away from Manna when we had voice-based picking in warehouses. Guess we’ve finally taken it all the way to the actual full-on Manna.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voice-directed_warehousing

techjamie11 hours ago

Burger King already was doing this at their drive thru to check if employees were saying keywords like "you rule" and determining the customer's mood. Also saving a recording of the interaction for who knows how long. BobDaHacker got into their system with an auth bypass and exposed it[1]. It's very draconian.

[1] https://archive.is/fMYQp (BK DMCA'd the original article offline[2])

[2] https://bobdahacker.com/blog/rbi-hacked-drive-thrus/

kotaKattechjamie10 hours ago

The screenshots of the backend “Assistant” in [1] pretty much seem like this is what Burger King is expanding upon. It seemed already able to determine out-of-stocks and was gathering cleanliness data for the bathrooms.

It also sounds like they’re basically confirming [1] as well out loud — “He adds that the company is currently testing the AI drive-thru technology in fewer than 100 restaurants.”

Of note, I recall back in the mid-2000s there was a swing-down device near the order packing zone in the Burger King kitchen and it had a screen and a keypad on it and was labeled the “Manager’s Assistant” (or maybe “Kitchen Minder”?) device. From what I understood it was tracking production, providing reminders to check the bathroom, and providing projected order volume information.

https://www.goicc.com/kitchen-minder-tech-support

bdangubic11 hours ago

"please" and "thank you" are the least of burger king's problems

josefritzishere11 hours ago

Does their CEO, Joshua Kobza say 'please' and 'thank you'? I have doubts.

RiverCrochet11 hours ago

Burger King is not in the "too big to fail" category. Writing letters to people in the company would probably be pretty effective here. Even if you don't eat at Burger King, when AI takes over all software jobs, you might end up making more money by working there someday. Protecting your interests is important.

mothballedRiverCrochet10 hours ago

I know things are bad in tech, but it's still about 50% people stoned out their gourd everytime I go to a chain drive through. These chains are not in a position to meaningfully enforce how the interaction happens, they are barely in a position to meaningfully enforce that the worker is sober enough to form a sentence.

butterbombRiverCrochet10 hours ago

> Burger King is not in the "too big to fail" category.

How the hell have they survived this long. It’s consistently been the worst fast food burger restaurant I’ve been across the various states I’ve lived.

andrewmutzRiverCrochet10 hours ago

Is it okay for human managers to make sure the employees are being polite? But not AI? Why?

Henchman21andrewmutz9 hours ago

When a human makes sure employees are being polite, they're reinforcing the social contract that comes with employment. When you remove the human from the equation it's literally dehumanizing. That's it. Thats the why.

RiverCrochetandrewmutz9 hours ago

What's wrong is the micromanaging, and also the "operationalization" of politeness into the metric of "these specific words and these specific times." Both are dehumanizing with or without AI - both on the employee side and my side - what is the point of politeness if it's basically at gunpoint?

I would equally have a problem with a manager who is threatening to write people up if they don't meet some count of saying the words "please" and "thank you."

I don't want AI to enable micromanagement of stuff that doesn't really need to be micromanaged. How it should be done is this: Print a QR code on the receipt. If I feel the drivethru conversation was bad, let me scan it and notify you. Then you can have AI review that conversation, and we'll also find out who the people are that just like to complain too much and ban them from the establishments.

RankingMemberRiverCrochet7 hours ago

Anyone who's been to a Chik Fila more than once has experienced how weird and off-putting this kind of micro-management to the point of ensuring certain phrases are always used in particular situations is- every conversation with them ends with them saying "my pleasure" in a rote way.

craftkillerRankingMember6 hours ago

I definitely agree that is weird and off-putting, but I recently moved to an area with a grocery store that is the complete opposite: the cashiers stand there silently through the whole order. That's also off-putting despite my introversion. I think we need a middle ground with a simple mandatory polite greeting like "Welcome to Hank's" and then after that leave it up to being organic/authentic.

_DeadFred_andrewmutz8 hours ago

https://marshallbrain.com/manna1

(probably killing a dead horse posting this again in this thread but it's the best response)

amelius10 hours ago

The proven method is to allow tipping.

joshstrangeamelius10 hours ago

Not sure if you are implying that by adding tipping you will get the employees to be more personable/pleasant. If you are:

I can assure that is not the case. I would love to know what the secret is to getting people to show an ounce of enthusiasm. A family member has a bakery and getting the front of house to engage with the customer at all is like pulling teeth, and this is an above-minimum-wage job with tips. They aren't on "commission" (it's been tried) but their tips are directly influenced by the ticket price (obviously).

eudamoniacjoshstrange10 hours ago

The secret is paying them more (sometimes via tips) and firing them easily. This only works if you're very successful, of course. High end restaurants don't have this problem because the number of waiters wanting tips on $500 bills is very high, and the poor performers get the boot immediately.

Hizonnerjoshstrange2 hours ago

Nobody wants to be fucking "engaged with" at your bakery. Give me my order, take my money, and let me fucking go.

booleandilemmaamelius10 hours ago

I tipped a couple times at coffee shops in the past (via tablet). Didn't receive any acknowledgement and felt like an idiot afterwards. I don't tip now.

eudamoniacbooleandilemma10 hours ago

Very true observation. I've tipped quite a few times at coffee and similar kinds of shops, on the tablet when they flip it around towards you, and I've never received any acknowledgement about it. I'm not sure if they are checking ungratefully or just not checking, but I've stopped tipping in those situations.

On the other hand, I don't think I've ever received exceptional service in that situation either. I'm not sure what that would even look like. Beyond some eye contact and a friendly tone, what is the tip supposed to incentivize?

ratelimitsteve10 hours ago

I love that we're inventing jobs for computers to do automatically at great expense with no real value added. The "burning investor money for heat" phase of AI development is really bringing out the weirdo in everyone.

soiax10 hours ago

They should also check for hot dog vs not hot dog

LightBug1soiax10 hours ago

Or, check there's no dog in the hot?

owlcompliance10 hours ago

How is this draconian? An employer is embedding systems into its processes to monitor customer service.

ryanmcbrideowlcompliance10 hours ago

Fast food service is one of the most dehumanizing soul crushing jobs a person can do. I'm speaking from first hand experience that you're clearly lacking. On top of the abuse the workers deal with from all sides every single day, to have a robot giving you demerits based on specific language is fucking disgusting.

owlcomplianceryanmcbride10 hours ago

1. You assumed I don't have fast food experience and did not care to even know. It was more important to try and make a point, even if it was in a dishonest way. That says a lot about you.

2. Fast food is NOT one of the most dehumanizing soul crushing jobs. Yes, you deal with a lot of rude customers. But if you go into fast food unprepared for that, that's on you. It is part of the job (also part of hospitality) and it all comes down to how you respond and handle it.

3. If you're working fast food and willing to accept, or are stuck with, a low-wage job, that means there's other readily-available low-wage jobs that you can switch to. Working fast food is voluntary.

Since you have so much fast food experience, why did you not address how egregious customer service can be at places like Burger King? It's a problem. I've lost count of the amount of times a bunch of young employees slammed drive through windows on me, had an aggressive attitude simply because something wasn't right in their day, etc.

As a customer, I report it, but then feel like nothing gets done. It's my word against theirs. These systems allow management to actually know what's happening, who said what, if someone is disrespecting customers, etc.

Based on what you think is disgusting, I suspect you lack a TON of life experience and exposure to the world. My first-hand experience has led me to believe that a 5-year having to be on the streets selling candy full-time is "effing degusting".

Your definition if disgusting sounds very first-world.

BigTTYGothGFowlcompliance9 hours ago

> As a customer, I report it,

Don't you have better things to do with your limited time on Earth?

shimmanBigTTYGothGF8 hours ago

These boots ain't gonna lick themselves.

owlcomplianceshimman7 hours ago

Nah, just a different perspective. Private enterprise != Government.

shimmanowlcompliance5 hours ago

Yes, private enterprise is far worse than governments. Governments are accountable, the royal centrally planned communist dictatorships that are private enterprise are not.

owlcomplianceshimman4 hours ago

I don't even know how to respond to your comment. It's so royally detached from the reality of the world that I don't even know where to begin.

So there's only one group that has the power of the sword, and that is the government. There's only one group that holds a monopoly on violence, and that's government. There's only one group that can steal your home, along with anything else they want, using the state powers like eminent domain, and that's the government.

You say governments are accountable. Tell that to every Jeffrey Epstein victim and ask them how much accountability there is right now in government as it relates to the integrity of their investigation.

I say this with all due respect, but your comment is so far from fact that I think you may be trolling.

shimmanowlcompliance4 hours ago

I'm not trolling, private businesses are mostly centrally planned economies and we know how terrible those are for humans. Acting like workplace democracy is a bad thing is beyond pathetic. Liberating the workplace from tyrants is the final frontier of democracy, any entity that can controls one's life without consent from all the workers doesn't deserve to exist.

I can honestly think of maybe two business leaders that would survive a vote by their workers to stay in power of the company.

Private enterprise enable some of the worst forms of human collaboration (monarchies, oligarchies, centrally planned top down enforced initiatives). Democracies are more efficient and far, so why not legislate their existence in workplaces?

If it helps, you sound like the troll to me.

owlcomplianceshimman3 hours ago

I have to jump in the car soon, so to end on a good note: I now know you are not a troll, but I did start thinking that for a bit.

As an employee, we take part in charting the course for the business, but businesses have owners, and they have the ultimate say. A nation does not have owners. A nation has citizens, which is why democracy makes sense in a nation, but not a business; although loosely speaking, putting things to a vote when it's appropriate is not a bad thing. But no employee is entitled to that unless it is directly related to the scope of his or her employment.

Ultimately, you are conflating two different worlds: private enterprise and politics. They are two separate things; two separate animals; with two separate natures.

owlcomplianceBigTTYGothGF7 hours ago

Boo hoo, I took 3 - 5 minutes to report an aggressive employee at a fast food restaurant I go to daily for coffee that is in my community.

Read the room, guy. You're taking time to type out a response to me, a complete stranger. And here you are, trying to portray me in a negative light because I put a couple minutes towards something that for me, was worth it.

If I was a business owner and had a long-time loyal customer that was getting treated poorly, I would want to know about it.

If I'm going to the same place every day, I don't want to continue experiencing the same poor service.

> Don't you have better things to do with your limited time on Earth?

...Don't you?

nickthegreekowlcompliance7 hours ago

To your first point, have you worked counter or kitchen at a fast food restaurant? Choosing to attack the other person instead of clearly answering the question that you decided to highlight surely says alot about you too.

owlcompliancenickthegreek7 hours ago

I've worked both; I thought it was apparent from my response. And your boy got sassy with me first; thus, I matched his energy.

You choosing to point out my "attacking" but not my "attacker" -- says a lot about you.

Nice try though. I'll give you a bronze star for the effort.

shimmanowlcompliance10 hours ago

You don't see how this is a deeply inhuman to not only monitor people but make it a condition of their job to say certain words or be fired?

owlcomplianceshimman10 hours ago

Nope. And I can tell you why.

Because which employer we work for is voluntary. If I own a business, I can choose which systems I implement in order to ensure a certain level of quality. If I had a logistics company, would it be inhumane to install cameras in the truck and GPS devices that monitor speed? Absolutely not. There's something called "risk" and from a business standpoint, it needs to be mitigated and controlled.

That is why, as employees, even certain key words are monitored on our computers. If we're in a relationship with a co-worker, it needs to get reported. The list goes on.

A critical part of fast food is customer service. If customer services goes down the drain, that presents a very real business risk to Burger King.

To a certain extent, this has been a standard practice in the field of customer service representatives that are taking calls all day. Their calls are monitored and recorded, then reviewed to ensure a certain level of performance.

shimmanowlcompliance8 hours ago

Man you are incredibly privileged to say such nonsense. The idea that workers can easily find new jobs is just hilariously out of touch, the pitch forks truly can't come soon enough.

owlcomplianceshimman7 hours ago

I'm not privileged at all. I work haaaaaaard for the money....so hard for the money.

The job market sucks right now, but mostly for white collar. Out of touch would be for me to say that a software developer or data engineer would not struggle to find a job right now.

Hospitality, trades, retail, and most working class jobs are much more stable right now.

Again, if someone is making $15 bucks an hour at McDonald's, I promise you that there is a job paying just as much in another industry that they could start within two weeks.

Out of touch is someone who thinks that is not possible.

Imagine bring pitch forks into the conversation because you disagree with a business technique.

Bud, go take a walk, breath, and then realize that we're talking about which work environment someone prefers based on employer practices. We're not talking about an inescapable government surveillance system that will monitor when you leave your house every day.

littlestymaar10 hours ago

Interestingly enough, that's exactly how Marshal Brain's Manna starts.

mikkupikku10 hours ago

Can they use AI to check if their employees actually assemble the burger before slapping it into the box? I don't know why burger king and mcdonalds have this problem when every other burger shop manages it fine. Basically what I'm saying is if burger king management is concerned about customer experience, or even if they don't give a shit and just want AI on their resume, there are better approaches..

LightBug110 hours ago

Does anyone actually still eat in Burger King?

I would have had more respect for this 'invention' had the AI was being used on customers, with automated, activated consequences ...

Some variation on the extendable punch glove: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rr1B9a_2Cy4

kylec10 hours ago

I wonder if a similar system is in place at McDonald's because they never fail to ask if I'm using the app, it's pretty annoying

staticassertion10 hours ago

This is very stupid. No one wants this. People don't like false sincerity. Even when we know that it's someones job to be nice, we appreciate when it feels genuine.

If you want people to genuinely be nice, give them reasons. Make them happy. Help them stay motivated. Otherwise you cheapen "please" and "thank you" even more than is already the case and get zero value out of it because no one will appreciate it knowing that it's forced.

A world where everyone says "please" and "thank you" isn't a better world.

chrisjjstaticassertion9 hours ago

> People don't like false sincerity.

Sad thing is, probably BK reckon its average customer is dumb enough to mistake it for genuine.

Sadder thing is, probably they're correct.

And if not, well, this latest move will help make it so.

boplicity10 hours ago

Companies like Burger King spend significant amounts of money on quality control, including customer service interaction. (Hence, mystery shopping being a thing.) I wouldn't be surprised if they find more ways to add AI into the loop, including analyzing photos of produced food, on top of analyzing customer service interactions, just as a cost saving measure.

lm2846910 hours ago

We're in a meme timeline, the amount of shit the human mind can come up with is amazing, even AGI wouldn't come up with these schemes

Bender10 hours ago

Wait, AI has not replaced the employees yet? Where are the multi-lingual multi-skilled androids?

~ I would like a burger, fries oh and come tune my trucks engine and neutralize that mugger that is attacking that elderly woman just down the street.

recursivedoubts10 hours ago

"You have 20 seconds to say 'thank you', will you comply?"

TheChaplain10 hours ago

Well, you may not like it, but BK probably have done their research and found that employees positive interaction with customers equals more sales.

Yes, there are probably a thousand other actions they could take to increase number of sold meals, but my guess this one is easy pickings, i.e. cost vs return.

SirFattyTheChaplain10 hours ago

Around where I live (Chicago suburbs), BK restaurants are closing often. Even new ones, open for a year or so close down (many buildings are turned into dispensaries for some reason). Their issues are deeper than how employees greet customers.

alamortsubite10 hours ago

We should be happy "AI" came around after the downfall of their* "Would you like to super-size that?" scheme[1]. Multiple sociopathic fast-food marketing breakthroughs may have been too much for America to survive.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersize

* I know this was primarily McDonald's innovation, but Burger King was guilty of it, too.

ortusdux10 hours ago

Sadly, I think this is only the beginning. Once video monitoring becomes cheap and easy we will see "shirts folded per hour", "distance swept per annum", "steps deviating from optimum path between van and front door", "customers approached per shift" etc

BigTTYGothGF9 hours ago

I hope everybody here who has been working on and boosting AI sees this and does a little bit of reflection on if this is the world they want to help build.

adamfeldman9 hours ago

It should've been called Manna: https://marshallbrain.com/manna1 [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manna_(novel)]

Simulacra8 hours ago

I think every retail corporation needs a consigliere to the CEO, someone who can take the CEO aside and say look, boss, that's gonna really make the employees mad and resentful. You shouldn't do it.

TheLocehiliosan5 hours ago

Welcome to Costco, I love you!

insane_dreamer5 hours ago

I don't eat at BK but will be sure to avoid taking my kids there in the future.