Ponder this: Starbucks spent a skillion dollars automating their in-store processes in order to reduce staff and improve margins. Sound familiar? 🤔

Since then, they’ve pulled a 180. Rather than leaning into robotic drink-making or complex AI, the company concluded that replacing staff with automated machinery hurt service quality. So we’re back to less automation and the return of friendly hand written notes on my cup.

What’s the lesson to be learned here? Hell if I know. I for one welcome our Chinese Physical AI Robot overlords. But maybe the lesson is that in a world of instant everything-all the time, the scarce commodity that people are willing to pay more for is the Human Touch. Let it marinate.

P.S. – If the first thing you thought of when I said Human Touch was Bruce Springsteen’s 1992 chart topping song and album Human Touch…be careful standing up too quickly when getting out of bed. You old! 😂