Hundreds of Burger Kings are about to get an Orwellian makeover.
What happened: Burger King is piloting a new AI assistant called Patty that will live in employees’ headsets, monitoring their work, answering meal prep questions, and even evaluating whether they are being friendly enough in their customer interactions.
The OpenAI-powered assistant will monitor how often workers use phrases like “thank you,” “please,” and “welcome,” and report the results to management.
Patty will go through a trial run in 500 U.S. restaurants, but Burger King plans to have the system set up at all of its locations, including in Canada, by the end of the year.
Why it matters: From fast food drive-thrus to Fortune 500 companies, worker surveillance has become increasingly brazen. With tech that now monitors every minute of the workday, employees are under pressure to justify each click, brief pause, and interaction in their day.
Roughly a third of Canadians have reported some level of workplace surveillance, whether it's keystroke monitoring, location tracking, or screen grabs. Some workers say they’ve been asked to explain 10-minute absences from their computers.
Zoom out: Canada’s laws around surveillance tools aren’t strong. Many provinces don’t have specific rules, while others simply require employers to notify workers of the tech being used and get their consent. That isn’t a particularly meaningful safeguard when refusing to grant that consent could spark professional blowback.
Our take: It’s one thing to make sure employees aren’t watching YouTube all day, but these AI tools go well beyond that. Some software vendors are now pitching tools that can monitor employees' communications and detect their tone, attitude, and loyalty to the company.—LA