Starbucks is testing an AI assistant for baristas. It hasn't said how it will judge it.

LAS VEGAS, June 2025 — Starbucks has started piloting Green Dot Assist, its first generative AI tool for store employees. Here's what changed after the announcement, what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of June 2025)

Pilot size: "35 of our coffeehouses, with more on the way," per Starbucks. (Starbucks)
Platform: Microsoft Azure's OpenAI platform, per CIO Dive. (CIO Dive)
Planned rollout: a broad launch across the U.S. and Canada "slated for the company's fiscal 2026," per CNBC. (CNBC)
Cost and results: not disclosed.

What Starbucks announced

Lefevre, Starbucks' executive vice president and chief technology officer, announced the tool on June 10 at the company's Leadership Experience event. "Green Dot Assist is a virtual assistant built to help baristas in real time," she wrote. "Instead of flipping through manuals or searching for answers, partners can now ask questions on in-store iPads and receive instant, conversational responses." Starbucks calls its employees partners.

Her example was a barista who needs "a quick reminder of the ingredients for a seasonal beverage." Starbucks says the tool "provides guidance in seconds." She called it Starbucks' "first generative-AI powered solution to support green apron partners."

CIO Dive, citing a Starbucks video, reported a wider set of uses: checking drink ingredients, helping new employees learn beverage recipes, troubleshooting equipment and helping managers find staff to cover last-minute callouts. CNBC reported that baristas use a tablet behind the counter and can type or speak their questions, and Lefevre told CNBC the Microsoft partnership includes a grounding engine meant to keep answers accurate (CNBC).

Why Starbucks wants it

The tool is part of Back to Starbucks, the turnaround plan under CEO Brian Niccol, who joined in September 2024. CIO Dive reported that same-store sales and traffic had been sluggish for five consecutive quarters. Starbucks wants to fulfill in-person orders within four minutes and mobile orders in 12 to 15 minutes, CIO Dive reported, and is working on a mobile-order sequencing algorithm and a next-generation point-of-sale system that Starbucks says can improve order accuracy, workflow and uptime.

The assistant is one of several changes since Niccol arrived. CIO Dive listed others: bringing back the condiment bar, reversing Starbucks' open-door policy, cutting less popular drinks, restructuring the corporate office, hiring new senior leaders and reviving the chief operating officer role that was cut in 2022. That makes it hard to credit any later improvement to one tool.

Lefevre framed Green Dot Assist as a way to give partners "more time to focus on crafting beverages and connecting with customers." The theory is that faster answers mean less time hunting through manuals and more time on orders. Starbucks hasn't said how it will test that theory.

For other operators, the pilot is a familiar pattern: a knowledge search tool aimed at a large frontline workforce, judged on whether it saves staff time. The questions worth asking are the same ones Starbucks hasn't answered yet: how often the tool is used, how often its answers are right, and whether it shortens training.

What went wrong

No measures. Starbucks hasn't said what would count as success: faster service, fewer errors, shorter training or something else.
No cost. Neither the build cost nor the per-store running cost is public.
Accuracy is untested. Generative AI tools can give confident wrong answers, and Starbucks hasn't said how it checks them.
What we don't know yet: which 35 stores are in the pilot, how often staff use the tool, and what happens when it gets a recipe or repair step wrong.

Our follow-up question for Starbucks

What results from the 35-store pilot would Starbucks need to see before rolling Green Dot Assist out across North America?

Later developments (added Oct. 2026)

Starbucks scaled the tool across its North American coffeehouses in November 2025, Niccol said on the company's Jan. 28, 2026 earnings call, per The Motley Fool's transcript (The Motley Fool). See Part 2.

Sources

Deb Hall Lefevre, Starbucks, “Meet Green Dot Assist: Starbucks Generative AI-Powered Coffeehouse Companion,” June 10, 2025. about.starbucks.com
Julie Littman, CIO Dive, “Starbucks deploys virtual assistant to improve workflows,” June 11, 2025. ciodive.com
Amelia Lucas, CNBC, “Starbucks to roll out Microsoft Azure OpenAI assistant for baristas,” June 10, 2025. cnbc.com
The Motley Fool, “Starbucks (SBUX) Q1 2026 Earnings Call Transcript,” Jan. 28, 2026. fool.com

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder