Brian Niccol's AI Bet at Starbucks Just Failed. Is the Turnaround Still on Track?

Starbucks' (NASDAQ: SBUX) new CEO, Brian Niccol, has put together a comprehensive strategy to turn around the business. That includes increasing personalization in stores by writing notes on cups and serving drinks in mugs to customers who are staying in stores.Niccol is aiming to reclaim the concept of a "third place" for Starbucks, and he's invested in labor to alleviate chokepoints in service like mobile order and pay, and reduce barista stress. One of his tactics for driving change in the business was investing in AI, specifically an inventory management technology that could track inventory, freeing up baristas to focus on customer service instead of counting boxes.However, that initiative seems to have missed the mark. According to a report in Reuters, Starbucks is retiring Automated Counting, as the technology was known. The technology frequently miscounted and mislabeled items, for example, confusing similar milk types. Overall, the technology seemed like a good idea, but the execution did not live up to expectations. Continue readingWeiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool Weiter zum vollständigen Artikel bei MotleyFool