Starbucks’ new game plan to roll out AI chatbots at cafes could serve as ‘litmus test’ for industry

The Seattle-based coffee chain is implementing “Green Dot Assist,” an AI-powered virtual assistant intended to simplify baristas’ jobs and fulfill orders faster. First announced in June 2025, Starbucks will pilot the technology created with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform at 35 locations and is being rolled out more widely this year.

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.

“It’s just another example of how innovation technology is coming into service of our partners and making sure that we’re doing all we can to simplify the operations, make their jobs just a little bit easier—maybe a little bit more fun—so that they can do what they do best,” Starbucks’ then-chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre told CNBC at the time of its launch. 

Starbucks first announced the tech at its Leadership Experience event last year, when it also unveiled plans to expand the position of assistant manager by adding the role to “most company-operated stores in the U.S,” hiring about 90% of management internally.

The swath of changes are among CEO Brian Niccol’s efforts for the company to “get back to Starbucks” and revive its cozy-coffeehouse reputation amid slumping sales. The plan is seeing results. 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.

At the core of Niccol’s vision for a Starbucks renaissance is the idea that beyond being a purveyor of beverages and pastries, the coffee chain’s true identity is that of a customer service company.

“When I ask people, name me a great customer service company, I usually get a blank stare. That tells me, right off the bat, there’s a huge opportunity to be the defining customer-service company,“ Niccol said during the Fast Company Innovation Festival in September 2025. “There 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.”

How will Starbucks capitalize on its agentic AI?

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

While restaurants have had mixed results with AI, analysts see Starbucks’ recent moves to leverage the technology as largely positive, so long as the company uses it effectively.

Logan Reich, an analyst at RBC Capital, told Fortune that while the introduction of an AI chatbot won’t be instrumental in increasing revenue, it can help train and onboard staff more efficiently, particularly as the company invests in internal promotions. Announcing new management opportunities alongside implementation of AI tools also sends the signal to workers that AI won’t be taking their jobs anytime soon, according to Gadjo Sevilla, a senior AI and tech analyst at eMarketer.

“What they’re trying to show here is that, with regard to adoption, is that they can make it work with longtime staff,” Sevilla told Fortune. “So it’s not replacing jobs, it’s enhancing jobs, with regards to the new hires.”

But as with any rollout including AI, Starbucks may experience hiccups.

“Making sure that the chatbot is accurate and providing in an accurate way and not causing more issues—I think that’s going to be a critical aspect of rolling out to a broad storebase,” Reich said.

Sevilla warned the tech may experience more profound problems, from security breaches to outages—like the one Anthropic experienced last month—that 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.

 “This is going to be a litmus test for AI integration at this scale,” Sevilla said.

A version of this story was published on Fortune.com on June 11, 2025.

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