Starbucks today announced two voice-driven features that will let people place orders by speaking rather than typing. Both tools rely on the Starbucks Mobile Order & Pay functionality within the mobile application, which makes it possible for people to place orders via their mobile device before they arrive at their favored Starbucks location. First, the My Starbucks Barista relies on artificial intelligence so customers can order and pay for food and beverage items by speaking the request aloud in the Starbucks mobile app. The messaging interface accepts speech or text input and can handle complex tasks such as modifying beverages to meet personal preferences. The My Starbucks Barista feature is being rolled out to a very limited number of iOS beta testers now, but isn't expected to see a wider rollout until the summer months. Starbucks said the feature will reach Android devices later in the year. Second, the new Starbucks Reorder Skill for Amazon Alexa lets people order their "usual" drink or food item from Starbucks by saying, "Alexa, order my Starbucks." People will need to program the skill, with their favorite drink and preferred store, in the Alexa app on their mobile device. It will then be available to any Alexa-powered device, such as the Amazon Echo or Echo Dot. The Alexa Reorder Skill will be made available in the days ahead.


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