Starbucks To Roll Out Microsoft Azure OpenAI Assistant For Baristas
- Reference: 0178000583
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/25/06/10/2032225/starbucks-to-roll-out-microsoft-azure-openai-assistant-for-baristas
- Source link:
> Instead of flipping through manuals or accessing Starbucks' intranet, baristas will be able to use a tablet behind the counter equipped with Green Dot Assist to get answers to a range of questions, from how to make an iced shaken espresso to troubleshooting equipment errors. Baristas can either type or verbally ask their queries in conversational language.
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> As the AI assistant evolves, Starbucks has even bigger plans for its next generation. Those ideas include automatically creating a ticket with IT for equipment issues or generating suggestions for a substitute when a barista calls out of work, according to [Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre]. [...] Lefevre said tenured baristas have been learning to use the new POS in as little as an hour. Plus, the technology can offer personalized recommendations and loyal customers' repeat orders, helping Starbucks achieve the personalized touch it's looking to bring back to its cafes.
"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," Lefevre told CNBC.
[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/06/10/starbucks-to-roll-out-microsoft-azure-openai-assistant-for-baristas.html
Orwell didn't go nearly far enough (Score:2)
So Starbucks is going to use AI to "help Starbucks achieve the personalized touch it's looking to bring back to its cafes".
The irony's so thick you could cut it with a spatula.
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Starbucks changed all their stores to grey and neutral colors and they look like the inside of a jail.
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> Starbucks changed all their stores to grey and neutral colors and they look like the inside of a jail.
Haven't you seen the color of cars lately? That's the in thing now. Everything needs to look all dystopian so the beings watching our interdimensional reality show don't forget that this is the mirror universe timeline.
Re: Orwell didn't go nearly far enough (Score:2)
That the best type of irony. Delicious irony. So smoooth.. mmmmm...
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Orwell, no. But [1]Marshall Brain yes [marshallbrain.com] (first few chapters).
[1] https://marshallbrain.com/manna
Give the customers what they want (Score:2)
Funny, I was just thinking today about things that would make me want to go to Starbucks more frequently. Cheaper drink prices? Maybe a better selection of snacks? Nah, what they've really been missing all this time is useless AI tech for their employees to play with while they're making my beverage.
But why stop there? Let's ride this crazy train to its logical wreck and have Starbucks do a collab with Suno. Now when your drink is done, you'll hear an AI-generated song play through the store's speakers
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> Funny, I was just thinking today about things that would make me want to go to Starbucks more frequently. Cheaper drink prices?
I think they are going for "reduced waiting time" and "more consistent high quality preparation", with an option for "cheaper prices" at some point (if they feel they must). It's not clear that AI will actually provide any of those things, but that's the goal.
> Now when your drink is done, you'll hear an AI-generated song play through the store's speakers, about how your venti double mocha soy latte with no whip is ready.
The song will advise you to "share and enjoy", and the beverage will be almost (but not quite) entirely unlike the one you wanted.
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> while they're making my beverage.
While? Or instead of?
How about.. (Score:2)
How about making actual coffee.
NZ/AU and others have GOOD coffee readily available from pretty much anywhere that sells coffee, Starbucks in comparison is pig swill.
How does a country that drinks so much coffee manage to do such a shit job of it ?
I have tried starbucks 5-6 times when I have been in the USA, taken one sip and tossed it.
Starbucks closed in NZ/AU because no one wanted their crap, though I see they are now having another go.... and unless they DONT sell starbucks coffee and sell the real
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Thanks for confirming that taste is individualized. You like what you expect to like.
If you mention BBQ in the US, people think of pork and beef brisket. If you mention BBQ in the AU, people think Snag grilled and served in bread with tomato sauce, or shrimp.
If you include alcoholic beverages, then you can compare the american pisswater beer against australian kombucha, ginger beer, kvass and kefir. I wouldn't want to drink any of these but people have been drinking them and thinking they are pleasant, s
WOW That is some shark-jumping. (Score:2)
FTFA:
> Instead of flipping through manuals or accessing Starbucks’ intranet, baristas will be able to use a tablet behind the counter equipped with Green Dot Assist to get answers to a range of questions, from how to make an iced shaken espresso to troubleshooting equipment errors. Baristas can either type or verbally ask their queries in conversational language.
How complex do they think it is to follow an ordered list of drink assembly instructions can be? And if the drink so VERY complex, how long would Starbucks expect to actually offer it?
And why would the new Starbucks unions even consider allowing this since it's likely that it's just one step toward removing humans providing customer service?
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They've figured out how to create the world's most expensive cookbook.
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Cookbooks won't hallucinate and instruct the barista to make that latte with lithium grease instead of milk.
=Smidge=
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I overheard someone ordering a "flat white" the other day. All I could think of to meet this description, apart from paint, was Ally McBeal. Not remembering the actress's name, I searched and determined that it was Calista Flockhart, that she is married to Harrison Ford, and that they have an adopted son named Liam.
The search offered a drop-down to answer the burning already answered question about whether Liam was adopted. Unable to resist, I took the bait. The "AI" answer included this hallucinated stat
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What a time to be alive...
=Smidge=
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I was a bar tender and I know 100's of drinks, easily, off the top of my head. IDK why people at a coffee shop have so much trouble they need an "AI assistant"
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Because they are underpaid and untrained?
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It's the heavy metals from all the earrings in their face and the green hair dye.
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> It's the heavy metals from all the earrings in their face and the green hair dye.
This must be very location dependent, because to me that sounds like you're describing the workers at the Apple Store. 'Round these parts, the Starbucks tends to be staffed by college kids who aren't god-fearing enough to land a job at Chick-Fil-A.
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Because they're dumb.
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You misunderstand the purpose. This isn't to serve the needs of the baristas , it's to serve the delusions of the marketing droids, who are currently gobbling down all the marketing slop that is A"I".
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> How complex do they think it is to follow an ordered list of drink assembly instructions can be?
Depends on how clearly written the instructions are. Even when the instructions are correct and unambiguous, language that is well-defined to someone with experience is often inscrutable to the newbie. (e.g. have you ever been following a recipe that tells you to "fold in" an ingredient and had to figure out exactly what "folding in" is supposed to consist of in that context?)
Traditionally your newbie barista would ask their co-worker at that point, so I'm not sure that having an AI on-hand provides much
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> And why would the new Starbucks unions even consider allowing this since it's likely that it's just one step toward removing humans providing customer service?
Because they know it's no such thing? They know what the real potential for A"I" is, and that it's no threat?
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> How complex do they think it is to follow an ordered list of drink assembly instructions can be?
Well... with the mentioned, "iced shaken espresso" you have to make espresso, add ice then shake -- in that order, and presumably in a cup. W/o AI a barista might try to shake and/or ice the espresso machine, which would be a disaster or, at least, messy. Then they'd have to look up how to clean that up, with a line forming ...
You're not thinking like an employer (Score:2)
You're thinking like a highly educated employee. And if you're an employer and you can have an AI that takes people who are too dumb or too broken to follow simple drink mixing instructions and makes it possible for them to do that you suddenly have access to an entire new pool of potential workers that you can abuse and underpay.
The process actually has a name. Taylorism. It was perfected by MBAs. It's the process of taking a complex series of steps that require a skilled artisan and breaking it down i