So reading the news I saw this from Finance.yahoo.com,

Starbucks quietly retired its AI agent just months after deployment after it miscounted coffee shop inventories and slowed down baristas

I am going to give a “no shit” here. AI is problematic when the human element is involved. If there AI is also over the speaker the guy who orders 281.3 Waters is going to screw up the inventory because the AI has no idea that this person is screwing with it. A human would instantly respond.. Uhh no.

The coffee giant confirmed to Fortune it has made an operational decision to move to a single model of counting inventory following an announcement in September to deploy its automated counting tool. 

This is the start of the beginning of the end of slap AI in a job and see if it works. The problem with AI is , it’s basically a sith , it only deals in absolutes, it can not tell when product is broken, stolen, or just removed.

The app, provided by NomadGo, took inventory of beverage components like milk and syrups in order to keep track of item shortages. In February, Reuters, which first reported the discontinuation of the tool this week, cited Starbucks sources who said the app often miscounted or mislabeled items, failing to identify the presence of bottles on shelves.

Again this is where sith mentality fails, if a person knows that a drink sucks with what starbucks tells them to use, one extra pump of a syrup is going to throw off the AI , unless you put sensors on every single thing in starbucks including the bathroom toilets it will not be able to know what stock is where. The human element knows what the stock is , they know how it is , but if somehow product is broken or Cups come in broken , the AI will count the stock and move on without taking note of the environment they are in.

“We test ideas in our coffeehouses, listen closely to partner feedback, and make changes to deliver a better, more consistent experience,” a spokesperson told Fortune in a statement. NomadGo didn’t immediately respond to Fortune‘s request for comment.

The factor that they did not reply to forturn for a comment is telling, the experiment did not only go bad, Guessing it got people fired for no reason, at least in my theory.

The app’s inaccuracies made employees’ workflow more challenging, he said. If the system counted too much of the product, it wouldn’t send enough of a product a store was running low on. If the system counted too little, it wouldn’t ship enough of a needed product.

This is the meat of the article. The AI could not account for the human element. It was built for streamlining profits without knowing what was going outside the inventory system. If there was a highschool game in the area The AIBucks could not figure out why stock flew out the window, and try to order the next days stuff at the bare minimum for profit margins. Like if they had 100 customers in one day the system would likely order 105 products not taking in that there was an event in the community the next day. human intuition is needed here, if one of the workers goes hey there is a huge gathering tomorrow they would stock extra for the next day , if left over stock less for the third day .

 Former CEO Laxman Narasimhan said in early 2024 customers were abandoning mobile orders because of long wait times and product availability.

Starbucks misses this point so bad. Even today the 10 minute wait for a fucking coffee is insane. You have 5 people working and 10 people in the store and it takes 20 minutes for 5 people in line because the CEO believes that starbucks is an experience. No , if starbucks wants an experience . Follow hershey, open a theme park in Penn. But the 9$ coffee thinking people want an experience is missing the point. You will get influencers doing this, but the guy who just wants a coffee waiting 10 minutes on a 15 minute break will leave and go to dunkin donuts and have a coffee in 2 minutes.

So far, Starbuck’s turnaround strategy, which also includes adding cozier seating and paring back menu items, appears to be working. Last month, the company reported a 7.1% increase in quarterly comparable U.S. sales last quarter

This 7.1% is temporary, in all likelihood this is churn coming back due to AI enshitification. And I do agree. starbucks seating reminds me of the seats outside of the principals office when I went to school.
Give or take I’d rather have my coffee from my coffee pot and occasionally from dunkin. I don’t need a song and dance for my coffee, I just want my coffee in a timely matter and leave as fast as I can.

Attributions from:

Yahoo Finance
Fortune.com