Starbucks Has A Virtual Assistant That Takes Voice Orders

Starbucks is simplifying the process of ordering complicated coffee drinks. Instead of placing an order by selecting items from the menu, you can now tell your preferences to a virtual barista by speaking to it #machinemagic

It seems that Starbucks is finally ready to unveil their own virtual assistant in the form of a barista. One thousand customers from US that have the iOS app will be able to try the My Barista feature during a beta test phase with a bigger roll-out scheduled for summer 2017. The Android version is set to appear at the end of the year.

Those with access to the virtual barista will be able to tell it the custom drink they want, modify and add to it as they would in real life. Then, artificial intelligence will help the voice service process the order, confirm the location for pick-up and the payment. Alternatively, users will be able to go through the process in a messaging window on their iPhone. See how it works here.

These two features are hardly surprising since, at their investor day, Starbucks has revealed that from the 8 million mobile paying customers, one out of three is using Mobile Order & Pay.