Starbucks is bringing artificial intelligence behind the counter, but unlike some of its fast-food competitors, the coffee giant says the technology is meant to work alongside its human employees.
According to Fortune, the company is expanding “Green Dot Assist,” an AI-powered virtual assistant built with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform. After its initial unveiling in 2025, Starbucks is now testing the system in 35 stores and plans a broader rollout later this year.
The chatbot is designed to help baristas quickly pull up drink recipes, suggest ingredient substitutions when items run out, troubleshoot equipment issues, and even help managers find workers to cover shifts.
For Starbucks, the technology is part of CEO Brian Niccol’s larger effort to “get back to Starbucks” after a period of slowing sales and customer frustration. Niccol has focused heavily on making stores feel more personal and efficient again, while cutting wait times and restoring the brand’s reputation as a comfortable neighborhood coffee shop.
Starbucks recently reported a 4% increase in same-store sales and a 5% jump in quarterly revenue.
Starbucks executives insist Green Dot Assist is being used to support workers, not replace them. Former chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre said the system is intended to “simplify the operations” and make employees’ jobs “a little bit easier.”
That approach is notably different from what happened at Taco Bell. Beginning in 2021, Taco Bell started testing AI-powered drive-thru ordering at more than 100 restaurants. By 2024, parent company Yum Brands had expanded the technology—developed with Nvidia—to more than 500 locations to speed up service and improve accuracy.
But the rollout quickly hit turbulence. Viral videos showed Taco Bell’s AI misunderstanding customer orders, including one incident in which the system reportedly turned a simple request into an order for 18,000 cups of water.
By late 2025, Taco Bell began reconsidering the fully automated approach and shifted toward a hybrid model that pairs AI with human employees.
That rocky experience is one reason Starbucks’ strategy is drawing so much attention now. Instead of letting a chatbot speak directly to customers, Starbucks is using AI as a behind-the-scenes assistant for workers already in the store.
Analysts say that makes the technology less risky and potentially more useful, especially in an industry where previous AI experiments—including McDonald's’ abandoned drive-thru partnership with IBM—have produced mixed results.
Still, Starbucks faces its own challenges. Analysts have warned that the system will only succeed if the chatbot provides accurate information and avoids outages or security issues.
One analyst described Starbucks’ rollout as a “litmus test” for whether AI can work at scale in restaurants without creating more problems than it solves.
