Starbucks Develops In-House AI Tools to Replace Microsoft and IBM Systems

Starbucks is developing AI tools to replace a Microsoft inventory-tracking system and an IBM maintenance platform. The company spends roughly $400 million a year on software. Some of the new tools could roll out by the end of next year after testing.

Bloomberg reported the initiative this week. IBM shares fell about 3 percent in premarket trading. ServiceNow dropped 3.5 percent and Salesforce slid 4 percent.

Background on the Shift For years, companies bought vendor platforms and paid consultants to customize them. AI-assisted development now reduces the time and cost of building custom tools. Starbucks already runs its Green Dot Assist barista tool on Microsoft Azure OpenAI.

The company is reviewing every contract as part of a broader cost-reduction effort. Earlier this year, Starbucks withdrew an AI-powered inventory system after it produced inaccurate counts and returned to manual tallies.

Microsoft shares moved little because the company also supplies the cloud and AI infrastructure Starbucks will use. Application-layer vendors such as ServiceNow and Salesforce were not named in the report but saw larger share declines. A new services market may emerge to help companies map processes and consolidate data.

Companies that control their own systems could gain more direct oversight of operations and data.