{"id":2908,"date":"2026-04-11T11:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/2908\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T11:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T11:04:10","slug":"starbucks-new-game-plan-to-roll-out-ai-chatbots-at-cafes-could-serve-as-litmus-test-for-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/2908\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks’ new game plan to roll out AI chatbots at cafes could serve as ‘litmus test’ for industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starbucks<\/a> is betting on AI to give its baristas some extra help behind the counter.<\/p>\n

The Seattle-based coffee chain is implementing \u201cGreen Dot Assist<\/a>,\u201d an AI-powered virtual assistant intended to simplify baristas\u2019 jobs and fulfill orders faster. First announced in June 2025, Starbucks will pilot the technology<\/a> created with Microsoft<\/a> Azure\u2019s OpenAI platform at 35 locations and is being rolled out more widely this year.<\/p>\n

The AI assistant will pull recipe cards of drinks to show baristas how to make them, as well as suggesting swaps if ingredients run out, the company said. The tech will also suggest food pairings to suggest to customers, provide troubleshooting support for malfunctioning equipment, and help managers find employees to backfill shifts should a store be short-staffed.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just another example of how innovation technology is coming into service of our partners and making sure that we\u2019re doing all we can to simplify the operations, make their jobs just a little bit easier\u2014maybe a little bit more fun\u2014so that they can do what they do best,\u201d Starbucks\u2019 then-chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre told CNBC<\/a> at the time of its launch.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starbucks first announced the tech at its Leadership Experience event last year, when it also unveiled plans to expand the position of assistant manager<\/a> by adding the role to \u201cmost company-operated stores in the U.S,\u201d hiring about 90% of management internally.<\/p>\n

The swath of changes are among CEO Brian Niccol\u2019s efforts for the company to \u201cget back to Starbucks\u201d and revive its cozy-coffeehouse reputation amid slumping sales. The plan is seeing results<\/a>. Starbucks reported a 4% increase in year-over-year same store sales last quarter, as well as a 5% uptick in quarterly revenue. As the company navigated tariffs and brought on more staff to its stores, profits took a hit.<\/p>\n

At the core of Niccol\u2019s vision for a Starbucks renaissance is the idea that beyond being a purveyor of beverages and pastries, the coffee chain\u2019s true identity is that of a customer service company<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I ask people, name me a great customer service company, I usually get a blank stare. That tells me, right off the bat, there\u2019s a huge opportunity to be the defining customer-service company,\u201c Niccol said during the Fast Company Innovation Festival<\/a>\u00a0in September 2025. \u201cThere is tremendous value in being a world-class, customer-service company combined with great craft, great quality food. When you look at putting those two things together for the price that we will have to charge for it, I think it will turn out to be invaluable.\u201d<\/p>\n

How will Starbucks capitalize on its agentic AI?<\/p>\n

The move follows the lead of other restaurant chains deploying AI. Yum! Brands, the conglomerate behind KFC<\/a> and Taco Bell, has partnered with Nvidia<\/a> to take drive-thru and digital orders. McDonald\u2019s, however, cancelled its contract with IBM<\/a> after two years and returned humans to drive-thru order-taking. Google<\/a> announced this month<\/a> the ability for its agentic AI to help book restaurant reservations.<\/p>\n

While restaurants have had mixed results with AI, analysts see Starbucks\u2019 recent moves to leverage the technology as largely positive, so long as the company uses it effectively.<\/p>\n

Logan Reich, an analyst at RBC Capital, told Fortune that while the introduction of an AI chatbot won\u2019t be instrumental in increasing revenue, it can help train and onboard staff more efficiently, particularly as the company invests in internal promotions<\/a>. Announcing new management opportunities alongside implementation of AI tools also sends the signal to workers that AI won\u2019t be taking their jobs anytime soon, according to Gadjo Sevilla, a senior AI and tech analyst at eMarketer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they\u2019re trying to show here is that, with regard to adoption, is that they can make it work with longtime staff,\u201d Sevilla told Fortune. \u201cSo it\u2019s not replacing jobs, it\u2019s enhancing jobs, with regards to the new hires.\u201d<\/p>\n

But as with any rollout including AI, Starbucks may experience hiccups.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaking sure that the chatbot is accurate and providing in an accurate way and not causing more issues\u2014I think that\u2019s going to be a critical aspect of rolling out to a broad storebase,\u201d Reich said.<\/p>\n

Sevilla warned the tech may experience more profound problems, from security breaches to outages\u2014like the one Anthropic experienced last month<\/a>\u2014that are associated with a company using tools outside its immediate premises. As more restaurants figure out how to integrate AI into their point of sale, they may look to see how effective Starbucks was in leveraging the tech.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cThis is going to be a litmus test for AI integration at this scale,\u201d Sevilla said.<\/p>\n

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on June 11, 2025.<\/p>\n

More on Starbucks:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starbucks is betting on AI to give its baristas some extra help behind the counter. The Seattle-based coffee…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[24,405,25,2984,2985,2986,2987,2988],"class_list":{"0":"post-2908","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ai","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-ai-agents","10":"tag-artificial-intelligence","11":"tag-coffee","12":"tag-evergreen-refresh","13":"tag-food-and-drink","14":"tag-restaurants","15":"tag-starbucks"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ai\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}