Starbucks plans to use artificial intelligence to present drive-thru customers with a personalized digital menu, an effort aimed at recognizing people as they pull up to order. The coffee chain disclosed the plan as part of a broader push to weave AI into its ordering systems, following similar experiments by Taco Bell and McDonald's.
The drive-thru concept resembles technology Taco Bell is testing that could alter the layout, content and visuals of a digital menu board on a car-by-car basis. McDonald's has also demonstrated an AI-powered feature it is piloting at a small number of drive-thrus, in which its ArchIQ chatbot identifies returning customers and lets them order their usual items.
Beginning in 2027, Starbucks will also start testing background AI models at the drive-thru to help baristas enter orders more accurately and efficiently, according to Niccol. The company additionally intends to bring AI into search and discovery within the Starbucks app, and it may eventually allow conversational and agentic ordering.
Starbucks has already begun accepting customer orders through ChatGPT. It has also introduced an AI-powered Green Dot Assist tool that employees can use to ask questions about topics such as recipes and service standards.
It remains unclear how soon personalized digital menu boards will reach Starbucks drive-thrus. Niccol characterized the work as still early and said the company will test, learn and scale what works.
The drive-thru plan puts Starbucks alongside other restaurant chains betting that AI can shape what customers see and how quickly they order. For US consumers, the effort would touch a channel many use daily, though the company has not said which locations would take part in testing or when the menu technology would arrive.
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