Pharmacy AI 'Burt' Keeps Getting Medications Wrong — Customers End Up With Wrong Pills or No Pills at All

In May 2026, Kinney Drugs — a pharmacy chain serving Vermont and New York — launched an AI voice assistant named "Burt" after the company's founder. Built by Texas-based tech firm Synerio, Burt was supposed to handle prescription refill calls. Two months in, it's causing more problems than it solves.

Customer Kathy Callaghan gets calls from Burt nearly every day. The AI mutters an incomprehensible drug name, she approves the refill thinking it's legitimate, and now she has "four bottles of something that I take twice a week sitting here." Maria Aveni, an anesthesiologist, says Burt forces her to use voice only: "There's no option to use a keypad. It's talk to Burt or don't get your drugs." She now goes to the pharmacy in person to avoid the AI. Matt Penney found it "more complicated and cumbersome," while Dave Bellini says it has "absolutely no value, no benefit to the customer."

Kinney Drugs' own terms of service admit that "Burt may not be accurate, complete or up-to-date and may be misleading or contain errors and omissions." Any customer who provides their phone number automatically consents to interacting with Burt — opt-in by default, opt-out only later. A privacy policy released the same month discloses that customers' protected health information may be used to improve the AI tool. UVM computer science professor Joseph Near noted that involving a third-party company means "each one has security issues to worry about." Vanderbilt professor Bradley Malin shared the same concern. ACLU senior staff attorney Cody Venzke said regulations are lagging: "we've not seen a detailed picture of how companies are going to comply." Vermont's new data privacy law S.71, signed in June, won't take effect for two years — and privacy advocates say it's already too weak.

Source: VTDigger (vtdigger.org, July 29, 2026)

BenPig thinks an AI that can't even get the medication right is worse than no AI at all.