Starbucks just scrapped their automated inventory AI after only 9 months

https://preview.redd.it/ztlwge46583h1.png?width=2400&format=png&auto=webp&s=7520a1736e28d7686c0855ddebe87f22c97a122f So Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol just officially axed their AI program for tracking inventory across North American stores. According to an internal newsletter that Reuters managed to get a hold of, management made the call to completely kill the automated counting feature. The program was called Automated Counting, and they built it alongside NomadGo back when it launched in September 2025. The plan from their tech director, Deb Hall Lefevre, was to use tablet cameras and Lidar sensors so the AI could quickly scan and count ingredients. But once it hit real-world stores, the system kept messing up, like not being able to tell almond milk from oat milk, or just completely missing syrup bottles. It was pretty bad. Even in their own official promo video, the app failed to recognize a bottle of peppermint syrup. They tried to claim back in February 2026 that it was improving product availability, but they have since quietly deleted that statement from their website. Meanwhile, the brand's operating margins in the region plummeted from 18% down to 9.9% over the last two years, and they just laid off 300 corporate staff this month. It really just shows that relying on computer vision to fully automate physical inventory is still a massive technical hurdle. Starbucks is heading back to standard, manual counting methods for now, and they are going to try fixing their supply shortages with a new daily replenishment model instead. Source:[https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/starbucks-scraps-disastrous-ai-tool](https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence/starbucks-scraps-disastrous-ai-tool)