Starbucks wants its drive-thru menu boards to know who you are. On Thursday’s earnings call, CEO Brian Niccol said the chain will explore “experiences that recognize participating customers as they arrive, present personalized digital menus, and make payment more effortless.” More Perfect Union spotted the comments first.
That is a notable shift for a company that sells coffee at scale. Instead of one static board for every car, the screen could change per customer. Your usual order, your size, your milk choice — all shown before you speak.
Starbucks is not alone in this lane. Taco Bell has been testing menu boards that change layout, content, and visuals “on a car-by-car basis.” McDonald’s is piloting an “ArchIQ” chatbot at a handful of drive-thrus, and it can identify repeat customers and let them order their usual.
The company says the menu work is still exploratory. Niccol told investors it is “early,” and added that Starbucks will “test, learn, and scale what works.” No timeline was given for a rollout at scale.
A second piece is more concrete. Starting in 2027, Starbucks will test background AI models at the drive-thru. The goal is to help baristas “input orders more accurately and efficiently.” Anyone who has watched an order get retyped three times knows why that matters.
The company also plans to put AI into the Starbucks app’s search and discovery features. Niccol raised the possibility of “conversational and agentic” ordering later, where a customer describes what they want and software builds the order.
Some of this is already live. Starbucks lets customers place orders through ChatGPT. It has also rolled out an AI assistant called Green Dot Assist, which employees use to look up recipes and service standards during a shift.
Personalization at the speaker box raises obvious questions. A menu that recognizes you needs a profile, a location signal, and a way to match the two as the car pulls in. Customers who opt out still need a working experience, so the system has to handle both groups cleanly.
Similar concerns have followed every personalization push in retail. Google recently began letting Gmail and Photos data feed its ad targeting, and the backlash was immediate. Coffee ordering is lower stakes, but the same data plumbing is involved.
For now, this is a plan, not a product. The realistic test is whether a personalized board is faster than a barista saying “the usual?” across a noisy parking lot.
Source: The Verge — Starbucks wants to use AI to show you a personalized digital menu at the drive-thru.
The Netherlands, for internationals
One email a week: the week's news for internationals in the Netherlands, new practical guides and what changed in the cities. No spam, unsubscribe any time.
