Starbucks’ AI tool didn’t die in a pilot. It died in 11,300 stores.
THE SO WHAT
An AI inventory system rolled out to 11,300 Starbucks stores then pulled back shows that scale doesn’t equal fit—operational friction can kill a “successful” deployment overnight. If you’re a startup selling AI into retail or QSR, design for store-level resilience and clear ROI, not just a flagship logo and rollout press release.
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