Starbucks announced on an earnings call Thursday that it would be focused on \u201cmajor tech modernization\u201d in 2027, including through greater use of artificial intelligence.<\/p>\n
That part isn\u2019t surprising given the fact that just about every company says it wants to deploy more AI these days. But one tech application stood out on the earnings call, and it recalls one particular scene from the 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise.<\/p>\n
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said on the call<\/a>, \u201cWe\u2019re also exploring experiences that recognize participating customers as they arrive, present personalized digital menus, and make payment more effortless.\u201d\u00a0 Niccol stressed, \u201cWe\u2019re early in this work, and we\u2019ll test, learn, and scale what works.\u201d<\/p>\n If you saw Minority Report, you know why this talk of personalization stands out. There\u2019s a scene where Tom Cruise\u2019s character John Anderton walks into a Gap clothing store. Earlier in the film, Anderton had his eyes swapped because eyes are a way to identify and track people in this futuristic version of the world. The character\u2019s eyes are automatically scanned when he walks into the Gap and he\u2019s greeted as \u201cMr. Yakamoto,\u201d a Japanese surname used to address a man who is clearly not Japanese.<\/p>\n The avatar of a salesperson asks \u201chow did those tank tops work out for you,\u201d presumably because Yakamoto purchased some tank tops the last time he entered the store.<\/p>\n Beyond the humor of the scene, it felt dystopian to see how consumers may all be tracked and get individualized sales pitches. But here in 2026, it\u2019s not science fiction anymore. We\u2019re all being tracked in countless ways as our data is bought and sold by companies that have built extensive dossiers on our lives.<\/p>\n The Starbucks earnings call, first flagged by More Perfect Union<\/a>, also noted that the company plans to test \u201cbackground AI models in the drive-thru that help our baristas input orders more accurately and efficiently as they interact with customers.\u201d<\/p>\n We don\u2019t know exactly what Starbucks has planned in the world of hyper-personalization so we reached out to the company. They recently tried to tell us about how it was fine that their \u201csugar-free\u201d drinks actually had some sugar in them<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re in the early stages of exploring ways to improve the Starbucks drive-through customer experience,\u201d a spokesperson told Gizmodo over email Friday. \u201cIn FY27, we plan to begin testing background AI models to help baristas input customer orders. We don\u2019t have further details to share on implementation at this time, but can stay close as we have updates.\u201d<\/p>\n We\u2019re guessing they\u2019re not going to be doing retinal scans on customers like we saw in Minority Report. But honestly, we don\u2019t know. And any kind of \u201cpersonalization\u201d using AI is potentially a minefield for consumer privacy.<\/p>\n Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, told Gizmodo that it was interesting timing for Starbucks to seemingly embrace an idea that would be met with backlash just as the FTC had demanded documents from nine companies<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the same week that the FTC decides to go after a handful of companies at the forefront of surveillance pricing, it\u2019s interesting to see Starbucks jump at the opportunity to be the next firm under scrutiny,\u201d said Owens. \u201cHere\u2019s what\u2019s brewing at Starbucks: AI-powered pricing calibrated to the exact maximum the company thinks you\u2019ll pay.\u201d<\/p>\n