Guess what? Artificial intelligence fails in the real world. As Katherine D’Amato of Project Counsel Media notes, Starbucks is the latest to find that out.

As she discusses in this article (When artificial intelligence fails in the real world, available here), Starbucks installed an AI tool called “Automated Counting”, designed by NomadGo, in September 2025. It was described as a way to relieve employees from mundane tasks, like counting milk cartons.

Nine months later, 11,000 stores are counting milk by hand as it was removed in May 2026.

The Starbucks AI system worked great in a store with a tidy, clean shelf, decent lighting, controlled SKUs. But, as Katherine D’Amato notes: “when caffeine semi- withdrawal ‘Type As’ crowd the counter, the smart software did not work too well.”

Starbucks labeled the effort as “more of a learning experience than anything” (corporate speak for “it failed”).

Why did it fail? Apparently, the technology – designed to track milk and syrup levels via 3D spatial intelligence – could not scale due to frequent identification errors, product mislabeling, and inability to handle the variable conditions of a busy store. Worse, the AI frequently confused similar products (like mistaking oat milk for almond milk) and struggled to detect certain syrup bottles on crowded, poorly lit shelves.

Guess what? The baristas were getting pissed off when store replenishment orders were thrown off, sending the wrong amount of product, so they often had to revert to manual counting.

As Katherine D’Amato notes: “Modern leadership believes in Tooth Fairies, silver bullets, and the outputs of BAIT acolytes (BAIT being the lingo for big AI tech outfits). Probability is good for some things – but not for all applications.”

Sometimes, the offerings from BAIT outfits turn into a “BAIT and switch”. 🤣

So, what do you think? Do you know of any other cases where artificial intelligence fails in the real world? Please share any comments you might have or if you’d like to know more about a particular topic.

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