Starbucks will test AI that helps baristas take drive-thru orders

Starbucks will start testing artificial intelligence in its drive-thrus to help baristas enter orders more accurately and quickly, CEO Brian Niccol said on the company's Oct. 29 earnings call.

The AI would work in the background, helping baristas enter each order as they talk with customers, during the company's 2027 fiscal year, he said.  The goal is to let workers focus on customers and move cars through faster.  Roughly half of Starbucks customers use the drive-thru, Niccol said.

Starbucks is also exploring drive-thrus that recognize customers who choose to take part as they pull up, show them personalized digital menus and make paying easier.  "We're early in this work," Niccol said.  Later, answering an analyst, he said it would be "premature to get specific."

In its app, Starbucks is working on AI-powered search and may eventually let customers order by chatting with an AI assistant, he said.

Will AI replace the person taking your order?

Not under the plan Starbucks has described.  A barista still talks with each driver; the AI listens in and helps fill in the order on the screen, so the barista spends less time tapping and makes fewer mistakes.  "The intent is to help our partners focus on connecting with customers while improving both throughput and speed of service," Niccol said, using Starbucks' word for its employees.  He did not mention cutting barista jobs or hours, and Starbucks said it has recently spent more on store staffing as part of what it calls Green Apron Service, its push for better in-person service.

That is different from what some rivals have tried, where an AI voice, not a worker, takes the order.  McDonald's ended a test of IBM's automated order-taker at more than 100 U.S. drive-thrus in 2024 after accuracy problems, though it said voice ordering would still be part of its future, Restaurant Dive reported.  Taco Bell put AI voice ordering in more than 500 drive-thrus, then its technology chief said in 2025 that a person may handle busy restaurants better, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Whether Starbucks goes further later is an open question.  If the AI makes each barista faster, a store could serve more cars with the same crew, the throughput gain Niccol described; he did not say whether it would change staffing.

Other chains are trying similar ideas.  Taco Bell is testing digital menu boards that change car by car, and McDonald's is piloting a chatbot that recognizes repeat customers and lets them order their "usual," The Verge reported.  For customers, that could mean faster lines, along with questions about how much a restaurant knows about them.

Source:  Starbucks fiscal fourth-quarter 2026 earnings call transcript, Oct. 29, 2026, The Verge, Oct. 30, 2026, Restaurant Dive and The Wall Street Journal.