How Starbucks Leverages AI to Enhance Premium Customer Experience

One of the biggest coffee brands in the world is Starbucks. Starbucks started with just one store and has since expanded internationally. The scene at any Starbucks store—coffee beans being ground, espresso shots being pulled, and patrons conversing with baristas while their coffee orders are being prepared by hand—is the same.

It may seem to be an ordinary, everyday scenario. The scene, however, is Starbucks serving over 100 million consumers every week. To provide a smoother and more personalized consumer experience in its stores, Starbucks is now utilizing cutting-edge technology like blockchain and cloud computing with the assistance of Microsoft. We will discover today how Starbucks is utilizing artificial intelligence (AI) and other cutting-edge technology to further enhance its customer experience.

Using IoT to Deliver a Premium Coffee Experience

With almost a dozen pieces of equipment, including coffee makers, blenders, and grinders, each Starbucks location runs around 16 hours a day. If one of these devices breaks down, a service call may be necessary, which raises the cost of repairs. Put differently, equipment problems may make it more difficult for Starbucks to provide excellent customer service. Microsoft has teamed together with Starbucks to lower this obstacle to the customer experience.

The IoT-enabled devices generate over 5 megabytes of data throughout an eight-hour shift, gathering nearly a dozen data points for every espresso shot. Starbucks and Microsoft collaborated to automatically detect machine problems.

Applying Blockchain

Starbucks has developed a new method of communicating with its coffee drinkers and farmers who grow coffee. To help customers understand where their packaged coffee originates from, where it is grown, and what Starbucks is doing to support those farmers, the firm is developing a feature for its mobile app. In the previous year, Starbucks collaborated with almost 380,000 coffee farmers. Customers will have access to digital, real-time traceability so they can find out more about their coffee beans.

Because it supports Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain service, supply chain players can track the coffee’s journey from bean to finished bag.

Increasing client convenience with mobile applications

In an effort to improve customer convenience, Starbucks has released a smartphone app. Due to an increase in orders from Chinese smartphone apps, Starbucks is also open to New York customers for mobile ordering and payment capabilities. Starbucks used to prioritize its physical locations, but these days it sells more and more through its website and mobile app. After choosing a pickup-and-pay station on their phone, customers who use the Starbucks mobile app place their orders. The Starbucks Pickup order progress board informs customers of the location of their coffee. While they are available to assist if necessary, baristas’ main priority is creating drinks once an order is placed through the app.

Starbucks, like other well-known restaurants, resorted to automation following the unexpected occurrence of the COVID-19 outbreak. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to enhance customer service was then introduced by Starbucks. Nonetheless, Starbucks has always placed equal importance on technology and personal interaction. The primary draw of Starbucks’ locations is their baristas. Starbucks has been unique due to the baristas’ talent and speed of work.

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