AI is watching you! And it is kind of creepy

More and more, companies are using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor employee activity, and it’s causing, shall we say, some concern.

AI monitoring U.S. fast food and U.K. call centers

For example, earlier this year, Burger King employed an AI agent to monitor its employees’ speech when taking drive-up orders. Burger King calls its agent “Patty” (as opposed to “Greasey” or “Saturated Fatty”). Burger King uses Patty to monitor whether employees are using certain words Burger King wants them to use when interacting with customers—words like “welcome,” “please,” and “thank you.” (That an AI agent is necessary to ensure such words are used when interacting with customers is another issue altogether.)

More recently, a company in England that provides call center services employed an AI agent to monitor every call each of its call center employees has with customers. There are 50 discrete markers the AI agent is designed to look for in the conversations. Some workers have, in polite terms, “freaked out” about the AI agent’s listening in, calling it “dystopian.” Undoubtedly, employees are going to be concerned the more that AI agents are used to monitor their performance.

Best practices for employers