Dutch Bros Is Running Laps Around Starbucks… So Now Starbucks Is Asking Sam Altman for Help

Starbucks stock in 2025 has been... steady. Painfully steady. It’s not imploding like it just got caught cooking the books, but it’s definitely not delivering the kind of returns that used to make it a core holding for every retirement portfolio. The stock is up just 2% year-to-date, which is maybe okay if you’re parking cash… but not so great if you remember the days when this company practically printed money with the best coffee you could buy and a functioning app.

On the other hand, Dutch Bros is stealing their customers… up 28% this year and expanding like crazy. They’ve now got 831 locations, and after trying it myself, I get it. I pulled in, ordered, and had my drink in hand in under a minute. No loyalty app crap. No “waiting for barista to finish crying in the back.” Just a few core items and smooth execution. It’s not hard to see why investors are starting to shift capital… or why Starbucks execs are probably cruising through Dutch Bros drive-thrus in sunglasses and a fake mustache.

Starbucks, by comparison, feels too corporate. Rising labor costs? Check. A menu so large it could be confused for a Cheesecake Factory? Check. Slow foot traffic and endless debates over whether customers should get the key to the restroom? Yes, still ongoing. The brand isn’t dead… but it’s definitely starting to get lower back pain. CEO Brian Niccol, the guy who once pulled Chipotle out of a lettuce-fueled PR crisis, knows this thing needs more than a seasonal drink drop to get back on track.

So Niccol is going with something more grounded: artificial intelligence. Starbucks recently introduced Green Dot Assist, a virtual assistant powered by OpenAI and deployed through Microsoft Azure. It’s currently being tested in 35 stores, with plans to roll it out across the U.S. and Canada in fiscal 2026 (which starts this fall… for anyone wondering just how slowly we move in tech-forward retail).

And it actually looks like a cool decision. Green Dot lives on an iPad behind the counter and is meant to help baristas with everything from remembering how to make a Lavender Oatmilk Latte to troubleshooting finicky espresso machines. It even recommends food pairings… like a lemon loaf to go with your floral drink (if you’re into that kind of thing).

And get this, future versions of the system are supposed to auto-submit IT tickets when equipment breaks and recommend shift coverage when someone calls out. So yes, it might eventually be the only “employee” that doesn’t ghost the morning rush.

CTO Deb Hall Lefevre insists the tool is built on verified internal data… so it shouldn’t start hallucinating and telling baristas to put blueberry scones in a macchiato (unlike some other AI tools we could name). And in case you missed it, this rollout follows right on the heels of McDonald’s pulling the plug on its IBM-powered drive-thru AI experiment, which couldn’t figure out the difference between “Coke” and “quarter pounder.” Starbucks, it seems, is aiming to show how it’s done… slowly, but maybe more competently (we’ll see about that).

Green Dot is part of Niccol’s bigger “Back to Starbucks” initiative. The strategy includes cutting 30% of the menu (finally admitting that 14 types of cold foam may not be necessary), fixing the mobile ordering system, and actually hiring more humans to do the work instead of relying on machines that break twice a week. Niccol’s made it clear… labor investments beat equipment upgrades when it comes to improving speed and service. And he’s pushing for average service times under four minutes, which is ambitious… but doable if the AI holds up and the menu is simplified.

The goal here isn’t to become a tech company… it’s to stop running like a confused one. Customers want speed, accuracy, and the confidence that their drink won’t be handed off with someone else’s name on it. If Green Dot helps deliver on that, it could quietly become one of the more meaningful operational improvements the company’s made in years.

Now will this actually matter for the stock? Maybe. Starbucks still has strong brand equity, loyal customers, and nearly 16,000 U.S. locations, but let’s not pretend that’s a moat anymore. If anything, it’s more like a fixed cost burden when the stores aren’t operating efficiently.

If this AI initiative helps reduce onboarding time, smooth out operations, and drive throughput (even by a few percentage points) that could translate into real margin expansion. And in a year where comps have been soft and investor patience is wearing thin, that might be enough to wake this stock up from its slow drip.

Right now, SBUX trades at a forward P/E of 24, which isn’t Snoop Dogg high territory… but it does assume Starbucks starts executing better in the second half of the year. If Niccol’s plan works, there’s room for multiple expansion. If it doesn’t, then this just becomes another “innovation” that sounds better in a press release than it performs in the field.

At the time of publishing this article, Stocks.News holds positions in Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and McDonald’s as mentioned in the article.