The big lie of artificial intelligence is that it is going to make everyone’s job easier. That capacity certainly exists of course, but the real goal is not to make jobs easier, but nonexistent. And not in the no-one-has-to-work-anymore-because-all-our-needs-are-being-met sort of way, but in the continue-to-consolidate-wealth-among-a-small-few sort of way. So it isn’t entirely surprising that corporations have an itchy trigger finger when it comes to instituting AI beyond its proven utility.
A few months back, coffee giant Starbucks rolled out an artificial intelligence-managed inventory system. But that didn’t exactly work out so great, so now, after only nine months, the company is quietly ending the whole program.
As reported by Reuters, the AI tool was implemented at all North American Starbucks locations in order to “fix the coffee chain’s persistent product shortages that [CEO Brian Niccol] blamed for hurting sales.” The app, created by AI-powered inventory technology company NomadGo, was intended for use as an “Automated Counting” system. It was supposed to replace traditional manual inventorying; workers would take a photo of shelves for drink component products like syrups and milk, which they would upload to the app to be “scanned with LIDAR and camera data.”
The only problem is that the AI agent wasn’t all that accurate. Per Reuters, the app would “frequently” miscount and/or mislabel inventory items, often “confusing similar milk types or missing them altogether.” It was also unable to recognize a bottle of peppermint syrup sitting on the shelf. The errors led to Starbucks shuttering the program, which they announced in an internal memo. “Starting today, Automated Counting will be retired.”
It’s part of the current friction corporations are facing with AI. The c-suite wants it, because they think it’s cutting edge and what customers want or because it will reduce labor costs or both. But the current AI agents aren’t yet suited to purpose. Even so, AI in the coffee space isn’t going anywhere. Already a cafe is beta testing AI middle managers, which isn’t doing so hot either, and one Silicon Valley company is having a human mechanically manipulate robot arms to pour a cup of coffee, over and over again hundreds of times, in order to teach the machine how to do it on its own. And if ever there was a more 21st century version of The Frog and The Scorpion, I’ve yet to hear it.
The cognitive dissonance is most apparent in the specialty coffee space. Coffee brands spend a lot of money, millions in the case of Starbucks, to tout that they are human powered, that the stories they tell of people on the supply chain aren’t simply marketing fodder. And then they look for every corner AI can cut in order to excise those very people from the equation. AI is coming and there’s nothing we can do about it. At least for the time being it is very bad at the things it is supposed to be doing.
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
