Latest news with #Lefevre
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Starbucks to use AI to cut wait time and make service faster
Starbucks is introducing a new AI assistant called Green Dot Assist at 35 stores this month to help baristas work faster and more efficiently. According to a CNBC report, the assistant is built using Microsoft Azure's OpenAI platform and is part of the company's plan to improve service and reduce wait times at its cafés. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now The AI tool was unveiled during Starbucks' Leadership Experience event in Las Vegas, where over 14,000 North American store managers gathered. A full rollout across U.S. and Canadian stores is expected in fiscal year 2026, starting this fall. '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 the publication. Helping Baristas work smarter Green Dot Assist will be available on a tablet behind the counter, allowing baristas to type or speak their questions in plain language. Instead of looking through manuals or online guides, staff can now quickly find answers about drink recipes, fixing equipment, and more. Future plans for the AI include automatically reporting tech issues and suggesting schedule changes when an employee is absent. These upgrades aim to support Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol's goal of reducing service times to under four minutes per order. Starbucks' partnership with Microsoft comes at a time when many companies, like Walmart and JPMorgan, are adopting generative AI to improve operations and reduce costs. However, AI tools can sometimes provide wrong answers — a problem known as 'hallucinations.' Lefevre said Starbucks' system is designed with safeguards to ensure the information it gives is accurate. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Other upgrades shown at the event included a new point-of-sale system and improved espresso machines. According to Lefevre, even experienced baristas are learning to use the new system in under an hour. It can also suggest repeat orders for loyal customers, helping Starbucks bring back a more personal experience in its stores.
CNBC
2 days ago
- Business
- CNBC
Starbucks to roll out Microsoft Azure OpenAI assistant for baristas
Starbucks plans to roll out a generative AI assistant created with Microsoft Azure's OpenAI platform to 35 locations this month as part of its strategy to simplify baristas' jobs and speed up service in its cafes. The coffee chain showed off the new technology to more than 14,000 North American store managers at its Leadership Experience in Las Vegas on Tuesday. A broad launch of the "Green Dot Assist" platform across the U.S. and Canada is slated for the company's fiscal 2026, which starts in the fall. The three-day event comes as Starbucks pushes to revive its sluggish U.S. sales and "get back to Starbucks," as CEO Brian Niccol has described the effort since he took the role last year. Niccol's priorities include slashing service times to four minutes per order. Quick, accurate answers to barista questions could help achieve that goal. "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. 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. 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 Lefevre. Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, companies have been trying the implement generative artificial intelligence in their own operations, envisioning the AI hype can cut expenses and maybe even boost their stock prices. Walmart and JPMorgan Chase are among the corporate giants that have rolled out AI assistants for their workforce. But chatbots aren't always a perfect solution. They can sometimes provide inaccurate answers, known as "hallucinations," which could mean another headache instead of an easy resolution. Lefevre said that the company's partnership with Microsoft includes a grounding engine that ensures the accuracy of the information provided. Other restaurant companies have also been looking to AI to simplify their restaurant workers' jobs and improve operations. For example, Yum Brands has partnered with Nvidia to roll out AI order-taking, Nvidia-powered computer vision and restaurant performance assessments fueled by AI. But AI agreements haven't always been successful; McDonald's ended its partnership with IBM after its test of AI drive-thru order taking didn't meet expectations. Other new technology on display at the Leadership Experience includes the latest generation of Starbucks' Mastrena espresso machines and a more intuitive point-of-sale system. 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.
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
How Starbucks' CTO balances tech investments that can make work easier for baristas without losing the human touch
A key pillar of the turnaround plan at Starbucks that's being spearheaded by CEO Brian Niccol is to focus more on human connection between employees and customers and put less emphasis on technology. So what does that mean for Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre? 'The technology story here at Starbucks—guess what?—the star of the story is not technology,' says Lefevre. 'It's human connection in our coffee houses.' Technology, she says, will continue to be weaved throughout Starbucks' strategy, ranging from in-store automation investments to newer technologies like generative artificial intelligence. But technology is now intended to work more quietly in the background. That's a reframing of thinking at Starbucks, which was an early adopter and fast mover in mobile, a technological advancement that the restaurant chain mastered by courting 34 million active Starbucks Rewards loyalty members using its app in the U.S. alone. During a 16-year career at rival McDonald's, where Lefevre held various leadership roles including serving as chief information officer of the U.S. business, she kept a close eye on her rival's technological prowess. 'I often envied the tech that I was seeing, from a consumer perspective, at Starbucks,' says Lefevre. 'They were the benchmark for all of us in the industry.' Starbucks had perhaps too much success on mobile and lost its way a bit with how the physical stores were being managed. Frequently heralded as a much-desired 'third place,' a space to convene between work and home, some critics lamented the stores had become too impersonal. Investments tilted toward the mobile experience, even leading Starbucks to open minimalist stores that were pick-up only locations for takeout orders. This led to some dissatisfaction as the guest experience felt more impersonal. Mobile orders were so popular they would pile up and result in long wait times, discouraging both in-person and even online shoppers. Niccol was recruited last year from Chipotle Mexican Grill to get the coffee giant back on track, a turnaround that's still a work in progress—Starbucks recently reported a fifth consecutive quarterly decline in U.S. comparable store sales. Some early changes are operational, including simplifying the menu and launching fewer limited edition items. Others are intended to make the chain's coffee shops feel more personal, like bringing back handwritten names and notes after using printed stickers for a time. That's one example of Starbucks ceding efficiency gains from technology in favor of warmer hospitality. Niccol and Lefevre are encouraged by a recent pilot last quarter in 700 locations where Starbucks increased its investment in staffing and adjusted the sequencing algorithm for orders, which helped reduce wait times for in-cafe and drive-thru customers without hurting those buying via mobile. Starbucks says that on average, wait times dropped by two minutes, bringing 75% of cafe order wait times to under four minutes at peak demand. Lefevre, who joined Starbucks in 2022, says these adjustments can give Starbucks' baristas more time to create a 'moment of connection' with customers. Other more subtle technology investments include the 200,000 connected devices Starbucks has deployed to 10,000 company-operated stores, one of the largest Internet of Things (IoT) rollouts in the quick-service restaurant sector, according to Lefevre. Digital menu boards will be rolled out across U.S.-company owned and operated stores over the next 18 months, which can be updated and monitored remotely, saving time for staff in the stores. Sensors are able to measure and monitor the thickness of coffee that's being ground on site and improve the operational efficiency of refrigerators and freezers. Starbucks has also made tweaks to improve the mobile experience, including sharing even more precise estimates for wait times for when an order is ready. Another update that will roll out this summer is around price transparency, more clearly explaining how each modification that a customer makes to customize a drink will affect the final price. Lefevre's AI investments include some of the basics, like offering Microsoft Copilot to assist customer support employees and corporate employees. Starbucks has also unveiled a digital tool to improve scheduling for baristas. The new feature gives employees a wider pool of stores across a district to swap shifts, resulting in half a million more shifts filled in the most recent fiscal second quarter ending March 30 from the prior-year period. 'It's a win for our customers because they're walking into fully staffed stores,' says Lefevre. Lefevre imagines that future use cases for AI and other emerging technologies could range from generative AI being used to speed up the in-store training experience, to using augmented reality to help baristas track inventory, and even a customer-facing virtual 'AI barista' that could help customers select their order. 'It's a world of possibilities across the board, from store design to supply chain,' says Lefevre. 'There's just so many things that we're thinking about, day in and day out.' John Kell Send thoughts or suggestions to CIO Intelligence here. This story was originally featured on Sign in to access your portfolio
