Starbucks Kills AI Inventory Tool After 9 Months and $10M

Starbucks rolled out "Automated Counting" to all 11,300 company-operated stores in September 2024, promising to cut hour-long inventory counts to 10 minutes using an iPad camera. Within weeks, baristas reported the system counting reflections as real stock, misidentifying milk types, swapping syrups, and in at least one case, tagging a trash can as food.

The tool was eliminated overnight nine months later. Employees in areas with spotty internet watched their counts vanish mid-scan, only to be told manual counts no longer counted at all. Insiders say the project cost over $10 million.