Artificial intelligence is taking over the world, but perhaps one of the places we did not anticipate it sinking its claws is coffee shops, not even those run by huge corporations like Starbucks who will do almost anything to save on costs. Having said that, in the annual convention that the company is hosting in Las Vegas, they made the announcement that they will be including in their locations a new virtual assistant created especially for them. The Green Dot Assist.
Considering that most people have a really personal relationship with their regular coffee shop and barista, this move is surprising, as the charm of Starbucks lies on the interaction, the certainty that your name will be misspelled and the snark that regulars feel when those unfamiliar with the names try to order. But the more than 14,000 partners invited to the convention got a front row view to what the company is considering to be the first step to the future, and some may even like it.
The new Starbucks artificial intelligence Green Dot Assist and its purpose
For those who appreciate the human touch, your beverage is still going to be made by a human, for now, but Green Dot Assist will help baristas with providing recipes and tips with instant answers so that their job can be streamlined and they can be faster and more efficient. This will allow baristas to not waste time looking for answers in physical manuals when something goes awry or a piece of equipment is not performing as it should.
“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 Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre told CNBC.
Created using the OpenAI platform through Microsoft (MSFT) Azure, Green Dot Assist is a tool designed to facilitate human connection in Starbucks coffee shops. According to a statement made by the company “Baristas can ask Green Dot Assist, either verbally or using text on an in-store device, for a refresher on how to make a particular beverage or for troubleshooting tips if a machine isn’t working properly, among other things. The program will be piloted at 35 locations with more on the way.”
But despite this new incorporation of artificial intelligence to their company, Starbucks is going back to basics under the leadership of CEO Brian Niccol’s, who seems to have a “Back to Starbucks” plan focused on bringing back all the things that made the chain popular in the first place. For a while, baristas stopped writing names on cups with sharpies, and that is being brought back. Customers are once more encouraged to perch in a chair for hours with a ceramic mug instead of being ushered out the door with a to-go cup as a standard and some cafe spaces have been redesigned to feel more cozy once again and have lost the sleek design that they had attempted to implement a couple of years ago.
While new technology is unavoidable, and why would we want to avoid it if it helps to improve our life, there is something to be said about the way things were and the reasons why they made the company successful, so leadership will need to figure out how to maintain a balance between innovating and not alienating customers who choose Starbucks and have done so for years. For now, we will be happy knowing that our coffee will still be made by our favorite barista.