The company compiled information from franchisees and guests on how to measure friendliness, resulting in the fast food chain training its AI system to recognize certain words and phrases, such as “welcome to Burger King,” “please,” and “thank you.” Managers can then ask the AI assistant how their location is performing on friendliness.
I went to Wendy’s the other day, and they have this automatic pre-recorded English-fluent woman cheerfully ask for your order. While an actual person didn’t indicate that they were ready, I know they won’t do a second intro message either way, so I started to order. A heavy spanish accent comes over the speaker “Fucking wait, god.” My only thought was “Fair enough” and I waited.
Whoever implements these systems is crazy. We don’t pay people enough to be policed that heavily.
Taco Bell does that now. Every single drive thru I’ve gone to have a intro message
“Welcome to Taco Bell are you checking in with your app or reward points??”
And each version is clearly recorded locally because they always sound like a manager or something.
I almost want to drive to a bunch and record them for a dystopian compilation.
And I usually say “I have an order for <name>” and I get silence or a long pause and someone saying hold on.
It’s pointless. Especially when I can see the window operator handing food to a car ahead of me, I know they’re not ready but I’ve already been autoprompted by the recording.
That’s a very generous reaction to being cussed at for following instructions. I have no problem being asked to wait. I actually appreciate having someone acknowledge that I’m there by telling me to wait. But damn. Keep it classy.
Clutch those pearls harder m8
The first time I went to Wendy’s and it ran into that AI thing I complained to the manager, politely because I know it’s not their fault, but I just wanted to make my dislike of it known for them to tell their higher ups or whatever. She did say that you can just ask for a human. But I did make sure to be very clear that I was wasn’t just being a Karen.