Starbucks announced on an earnings call Thursday that it would be focused on “major tech modernization” in 2027, including through greater use of artificial intelligence.
That part isn’t surprising given the fact that just about every company says it wants to deploy more AI these days. But one tech application stood out on the earnings call, and it recalls one particular scene from the 2002 sci-fi movie Minority Report, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Tom Cruise.
Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said on the call, “We’re also exploring experiences that recognize participating customers as they arrive, present personalized digital menus, and make payment more effortless.” Niccol stressed, “We’re early in this work, and we’ll test, learn, and scale what works.”
If you saw Minority Report, you know why this talk of personalization stands out. There’s a scene where Tom Cruise’s character John Anderton walks into a Gap clothing store. Earlier in the film, Anderton had his eyes swapped because eyes are a way to identify and track people in this futuristic version of the world. The character’s eyes are automatically scanned when he walks into the Gap and he’s greeted as “Mr. Yakamoto,” a Japanese surname used to address a man who is clearly not Japanese.
The avatar of a salesperson asks “how did those tank tops work out for you,” presumably because Yakamoto purchased some tank tops the last time he entered the store.
Beyond the humor of the scene, it felt dystopian to see how consumers may all be tracked and get individualized sales pitches. But here in 2026, it’s not science fiction anymore. We’re all being tracked in countless ways as our data is bought and sold by companies that have built extensive dossiers on our lives.
The Starbucks earnings call, first flagged by More Perfect Union, also noted that the company plans to test “background AI models in the drive-thru that help our baristas input orders more accurately and efficiently as they interact with customers.”
We don’t know exactly what Starbucks has planned in the world of hyper-personalization so we reached out to the company. They recently tried to tell us about how it was fine that their “sugar-free” drinks actually had some sugar in them.
“We’re in the early stages of exploring ways to improve the Starbucks drive-through customer experience,” a spokesperson told Gizmodo over email Friday. “In FY27, we plan to begin testing background AI models to help baristas input customer orders. We don’t have further details to share on implementation at this time, but can stay close as we have updates.”
We’re guessing they’re not going to be doing retinal scans on customers like we saw in Minority Report. But honestly, we don’t know. And any kind of “personalization” using AI is potentially a minefield for consumer privacy.
Lindsay Owens, president and CEO of Groundwork Collaborative, told Gizmodo that it was interesting timing for Starbucks to seemingly embrace an idea that would be met with backlash just as the FTC had demanded documents from nine companies.
“In the same week that the FTC decides to go after a handful of companies at the forefront of surveillance pricing, it’s interesting to see Starbucks jump at the opportunity to be the next firm under scrutiny,” said Owens. “Here’s what’s brewing at Starbucks: AI-powered pricing calibrated to the exact maximum the company thinks you’ll pay.”
Owens is the author of Gouged: The End of a Fair Price—and What That Means for Your Wallet, and is skeptical that customers will be okay with any of it.
“This ‘personalized menu’ ruse won’t fly with consumers who know it means they’ll be getting both spied on and ripped off,” she told Gizmodo. “There will be no way to know whether your pumpkin spice latte costs the same as the person behind you in the drive-thru. Consumers looking for their caffeine fix don’t need this extra shot on their wallets.”
Starbucks didn’t respond to emailed questions on Friday about how it plans to create personalized digital menus. Gizmodo will update this article if we hear back.