{"id":184196,"date":"2025-09-27T00:55:06","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/184196\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T00:55:06","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T00:55:06","slug":"starbucks-cto-resigns-amid-ai-revamp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/184196\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks CTO resigns amid AI revamp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Starbucks\u2019s<\/a> chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre resigned without a permanent replacement, according to an internal memo sent to corporate staff on Monday, seen by Reuters.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The memo, written by the company\u2019s chief financial officer Cathy Smith, named Ningyu Chen, previously senior vice president of global experience technology, as interim CTO.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lefevre\u2019s resignation comes as\u00a0Starbucks\u00a0announced its second round of deep cuts in corporate roles<\/a>, effective Friday, as CEO Brian Niccol pushes a tech revamp in stores<\/a> to make labor more efficient, part of a turnaround strategy to revive flagging sales after six consecutive quarters of decline.<\/p>\n

Using AI to revamp how caf\u00e9s operate<\/p>\n

The revamp includes an AI<\/a>-powered automated inventory counter that is in the process of being rolled out to all company-owned stores in North America by the end of September. Other initiatives include an AI assistant for baristas, a new point-of-sales system,\u00a0and a queuing algorithm meant to help baristas sequence orders during rush hour. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Lefevre, a former McDonald\u2019s executive, was hired in May 2022 as part of the chain\u2019s focus on improving its drive-through, mobile ordering, and other systems. The memo said she planned to retire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOur tech priorities aren\u2019t changing,\u201d the memo said. \u201cWe\u2019re focused on the tech work needed to deliver our \u2018Back to\u00a0Starbucks\u2019\u00a0plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lefevre didn\u2019t respond to a request for comment Thursday night.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Thursday, the company said it would close underperforming stores in the United States. Its overall company-owned U.S. and Canada store count is expected to drop by 1%, with several hundred stores expected to close by the end of the 2025 fiscal year. It also said 900 non-retail roles would be eliminated, with affected employees being notified Friday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The\u00a0technology initiatives are part of a corporate turnaround called \u201cBack to\u00a0Starbucks\u201d being pursued by CEO Brian Niccol, who took the helm last year to revive the chain\u2019s fortunes. He has aimed to revive the chain\u2019s \u201ccoffeehouse\u201d appeal following six consecutive quarters of sales declines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Starbucks\u2019s February layoffs of 1,100 corporate employees hit the IT team particularly hard, a source familiar with the matter said Thursday. They said an outside contractor named Tata Consultancy Services, based in India, has been given an increasing role in\u00a0Starbucks\u2019s\u00a0IT division.<\/p>\n

Starbucks\u00a0in a statement Friday said the company will \u201ccontinue to have a very significant in-house technology team, but the focus is on the most important capabilities and the most important work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shares have lost more than 12% of their value over the last 12 months, compared with a 16% increase in the broad-market Standard & Poor\u2019s 500 Index.<\/p>\n

\u2014By Waylon Cunningham, Reuters<\/p>\n

The application deadline for Fast Company\u2019s Most Innovative Companies Awards<\/a> is Friday, October 3, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Starbucks\u2019s chief technology officer Deb Hall Lefevre resigned without a permanent replacement, according to an internal memo sent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184197,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[182,181,507,36345,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-184196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-artificial-intelligence","8":"tag-ai","9":"tag-artificial-intelligence","10":"tag-artificialintelligence","11":"tag-starbucks","12":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184196\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184197"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}