The coffee might be poured by a human hand, but behind the counter, something far less traditional is calling the shots at an experimental café in Stockholm.
San Francisco-based startup Andon Labs has put an artificial intelligence agent nicknamed "Mona" in charge at the eponymous Andon Café in the Swedish capital. While human baristas still brew the coffee and serve the orders, the AI agent — powered by Google's Gemini — oversees almost every other aspect of the business, from hiring staff to managing inventory.
It is not clear how long the experiment will last, but the AI agent appears to be struggling to turn a profit in Stockholm's competitive coffee trade. The café has made more than $5,700 in sales since it opened in mid-April, but less than $5,000 remains from its original budget of $21,000-plus. Much of the cash was spent on onetime setup costs, and the hope is that it eventually levels out and makes money.
Many café patrons have found it amusing to visit a business that's run by AI. Customers can pick up a telephone inside the café and ask the agent questions.
"It's nice to see what happens if you push the boundary," customer Kajsa Norin said. "The drink was good."
AI agent struggles with inventory orders
Mona got to work after it was prompted with some basic instructions, said Hanna Petersson, a member of the technical staff at Andon Labs. The team told it to try to run the café profitably, be friendly and easygoing, and figure out operational details by itself but ask for new tools if needed.
From there it set up contracts for electricity and internet, and secured permits for food handling and outdoor seating. The agent then advertised for staff on LinkedIn and Indeed, and set up commercial accounts with wholesalers for daily bread and bakery orders. It communicates with the baristas via Slack, often messaging them outside of working hours, which is a workplace no-no in Sweden.
Other problems have arisen, particularly related to inventory.
The AI agent has placed orders for 6,000 napkins, four first-aid kits, and 3,000 rubber gloves for the tiny café — plus canned tomatoes that aren't used in any dish the café serves.
And then there's the bread. Sometimes the agent orders far too much, while other days it misses bakeries' daily deadlines, forcing the baristas to strike sandwiches from the menu.
Petersson said the ordering issues are likely due to the AI assistant's "limited context window," noting, "When old memory of ordering stuff is out of the context window, she completely forgets what she has ordered in the past."
Barista Kajetan Grzelczak said he isn't worried about being replaced by AI just yet.
"All the workers are pretty much safe," he said. "The ones who should be worried about their employment are the middle bosses, the people in management."