Raphael Stevens

Starbucks unveiled a generative AI assistant created with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform at its Leadership Experience in Las Vegas.
The technology will roll out to stores in the U.S. and Canada in fiscal 2026.
The coffee chain has been trying to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafes as part of its turnaround plans.

A Starbucks store is shown in Encinitas, California, on Feb. 24, 2025.
Mike Blake | Reuters

Starbucks plans to roll out a generative artificial intelligence assistant created with Microsoft Azure’s OpenAI platform to 35 locations this month as part of its strategy to simplify baristas’ jobs and speed up service in its cafes.
The coffee chain showed off the new technology to more than 14,000 North American store managers at its Leadership Experience in Las Vegas on Tuesday. A broad launch of the “Green Dot Assist” platform across the U.S. and Canada is slated for the company’s fiscal 2026, which starts in the fall.

The three-day event comes as Starbucks pushes to revive its sluggish U.S. sales and “get back to Starbucks,” as CEO Brian Niccol has described the effort since he took the role last year. Niccol’s priorities include slashing service times to four minutes per order. Quick, accurate answers to barista questions could help achieve that goal.
“It’s just another example of how innovation technology is coming into service of our partners and making sure that we’re doing all we can to simplify the operations, make their jobs just a little bit easier, maybe a little bit more fun, so that they can do what they do best,” Starbucks Chief Technology Officer Deb Hall Lefevre told CNBC.
Instead of flipping through manuals or accessing Starbucks’ intranet, baristas will be able to use a tablet behind the counter equipped with Green Dot Assist to get answers to a range of questions, from how to make an iced shaken espresso to troubleshooting equipment errors. Baristas can either type or verbally ask their queries in conversational language.
As the AI assistant evolves, Starbucks has even bigger plans for its next generation. Those ideas include automatically creating a ticket with IT for equipment issues or generating suggestions for a substitute when a barista calls out of work, according to Lefevre.
Starbucks is expanding its relationship with Microsoft about a year after the tech giant’s CEO Satya Nadella stepped down from Starbucks’ board of directors.

Since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022, companies have been trying to implement generative AI in their own operations, envisioning the AI hype can cut expenses and maybe even boost their stock prices. Walmart and JPMorgan Chase are among the corporate giants that have rolled out AI assistants for their workforce.
But chatbots aren’t always a perfect solution. They can sometimes provide inaccurate answers, known as “hallucinations,” which could mean another headache instead of an easy resolution. Lefevre said the company’s partnership with Microsoft includes a grounding engine that ensures the accuracy of the information provided.
Other restaurant companies have also been looking to AI to simplify their restaurant workers’ jobs and improve operations. For example, Yum Brands has partnered with Nvidia to roll out AI order-taking, Nvidia-powered computer vision and restaurant performance assessments fueled by AI. But AI agreements haven’t always been successful. McDonald’s ended its partnership with IBM after its test of AI drive-thru order-taking didn’t meet expectations.
Other new technology on display at the Leadership Experience includes the latest generation of Starbucks’ Mastrena espresso machines and a more intuitive point-of-sale system.
Lefevre said tenured baristas have been learning to use the new POS in as little as an hour. Plus, the technology can offer personalized recommendations and loyal customers’ repeat orders, helping Starbucks achieve the personalized touch it’s looking to bring back to its cafes.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gutted a key government panel of vaccine advisors, a stunning move that some public health experts say undermines science, disrupts a trusted regulatory process, and could sow public distrust in vaccinations and federal health agencies.
It is still unclear who will replace the current panel, but experts warn that Kennedy could try to appoint members who are sympathetic to his anti-vaccine views.
Some experts say the firings could ultimately threaten public health, eroding already falling U.S. immunization rates against once-common childhood diseases and making the nation less equipped to grapple with new or existing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.

U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. leaves the stage after discussing the findings of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) latest Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network survey, at the Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 16, 2025.
Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has gutted a key government panel of vaccine advisors, saying he wants to “re-establish public confidence” in shots.
Some health policy experts say firing the committee members will do the opposite. 

“Rather than restoring public trust, his actions are simply politicizing science and vaccine policy,” Lawrence Gostin, professor of public health law at Georgetown University, told CNBC. “I don’t know how it is possible to trust HHS anymore.”
Gostin and other experts said the move undermines science, disrupts a trusted regulatory process for shots, and could increase public distrust in both vaccinations and federal health agencies. Some experts said the firings could threaten public health, eroding already falling U.S. immunization rates against once-common childhood diseases and making the nation less equipped to grapple with new or existing outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases.
The potential impact on vaccine manufacturers like Moderna, Merck, Pfizer and BioNTech is less clear, but some analysts say it introduces more uncertainty to the regulatory process around shots. 
Kennedy, a prominent vaccine skeptic, said Monday he is firing all 17 members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The group of independent medical and public health experts reviews vaccine data and makes crucial recommendations that determine who is eligible for shots and whether insurers should cover them, among other efforts.
It is the latest in a series of steps Kennedy has taken as head of HHS to dismantle decades of U.S. vaccination policy standards and chip away at the public’s confidence in immunizations. Among his most recent efforts, he dropped the CDC’s recommendation for routine Covid-19 vaccines for healthy children and healthy pregnant women, which also sparked outrage in the medical and science community.

While it is unclear who will replace the current panel, some experts warn that Kennedy could try to appoint members who are sympathetic to his anti-vaccine views. That could lead to politicized recommendations that highlight the harms rather than the benefits of shots or make them widely voluntary, deterring more Americans from receiving shots or vaccinating their children, according to some experts. 
“It’s really important that we recognize that these actions impact everyone,” Dr. Neil Maniar, a public health professor at Northeastern University, told CNBC. “This is not just a committee that was retired. It is a committee whose work has broad implications.”
HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment on who will be appointed to the panel, and the concerns from health policy experts.

Kennedy’s ‘unfounded’ claims and what’s next

HHS on Monday did not provide a timeline for when it will appoint new members. But the agency in a release said ACIP will still hold a planned meeting from June 25 to 27. A source familiar with the matter, who requested anonymity to speak freely, told CNBC on Monday that entirely new members will run that meeting.
In an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal on Monday, Kennedy claimed that the current ACIP panel has been “plagued with persistent conflicts of interest and has become little more than a rubber stamp for any vaccine.”
But those allegations are “completely unfounded” and will have a “significant negative impact on Americans of all ages,” Tina Tan, president of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, said in an emailed statement. 
She said ACIP is a highly qualified group of experts that has “always operated with transparency and a commitment to protecting the public’s health.” 
All HHS agencies and their advisory panels have also long had rigorous policies for conflicts of interest, and there have been no related issues for years. Members of federal vaccine advisory committees are already required to comply with regulations around disclosing potential conflicts of interest.
“The secretary is using conflicts of interest as a ruse to ignore or cherry pick scientific evidence,” Gostin said. “ACIP members fully disclose all potential conflicts and excuse themselves from voting if there are any perceived conflicts.”

Sherry Andrews prepares a MMR vaccine at the City of Lubbock Heath Department in Lubbock, Texas, U.S. Feb. 27, 2025. 
Annie Rice | Reuters

In a statement Tuesday, the American Academy of Physician Associates said it is “imperative that the administration acts promptly to reconstruct the committee through an open and transparent process that includes diverse provider voices,” including physician associates. 
But Northeastern’s Maniar said he wouldn’t be surprised if Kennedy taps political appointees who share his views around vaccine science. 
That could lead to recommendations that restrict who is eligible for different vaccinations or give much more leeway for individuals to decide whether to get immunized, Maniar said. He added that Kennedy’s restacked panel may want to take a longer period of time to vet certain vaccines before they become available, delaying the time it takes for them to reach patients. 
“It is certainly within the realm of possibility that we will see lower vaccination rates as a result of this,” Maniar said.
That could increase the risk of vaccine-preventable diseases spreading as the U.S. is already grappling with an unprecedented measles outbreak and is heading into a summer season of more travel and crowding, according to Maniar. The new panel’s recommendations will also be crucial for children as the nation approaches a new school year in the fall. 
Kennedy’s decision contradicts a promise he made to Sen. Bill Cassidy, a Louisiana Republican and chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, during his confirmation hearings. Kennedy told Cassidy, who cast the deciding vote to advance his nomination through the committee at that time, that he would not alter ACIP.
On Monday, Cassidy said in a post on X that the fear is now that “ACIP will be filled up with people who know nothing about vaccines except suspicion.” But he said he will continue to talk with Kennedy to “ensure this is not the case.”

Impact on vaccine manufacturers

New vaccine COMIRNATY® (COVID-19 Vaccine, mRNA) by Pfizer, now available at CVS Pharmacy in Eagle Rock, CA.
Irfan Khan | Los Angeles Times | Getty Images

Some Wall Street analysts also said the move is a risk to vaccine manufacturers, which depend on federal agencies like the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC to approve and recommend their products. 
“At worst, the committee could upend current recommendations for [new] and existing vaccines,” Leerink Partners analyst Daina Graybosch said in a note Monday. But she noted that the firm can’t fully quantify the impact of the move before seeing who will replace the current panel.
In a note Monday, BMO Capital Markets analyst Evan Seigerman said Kennedy’s decision is “a negative headwind” to vaccine manufacturers, as new appointees are likely to be more critical of future recommendations. 
But he said he expects “most impacts to be broadly muted.” Seigerman pointed to Kennedy’s picks to lead the FDA and its division that regulates biological products, the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, noting the ultimate selection for each seat did not reflect a “doomsday” scenario. 
FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CBER head Vinay Prasad have so far been “less negative for the sector than initially feared,” he said. 
“While RFK Jr.’s commentary surrounding vaccines has been consistently critical, we believe this has been well established with realistic headwinds largely priced in by the market,” Seigerman said.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More

Electric vehicle makers in China, led by the country’s market leader BYD, have been engaged in a bruising price war.
High-profile auto executives have sounded the alarm — with the head of Great Wall Motor calling the industry “unhealthy.”
Used car sellers said they’re also worried about the effects on sales.

At a used car market in Beijing, salesman Ma Hui said he fears China’s electric vehicle industry is in a race to the bottom.
EV makers, led by the country’s market leader BYD, have been engaged in a bruising price war, depressing profits for the brands, as well as sellers such as Ma.

“All of us were losing money last year,” Ma said about his fellow used car sellers in the market. “There are too many companies making too many new energy cars.”

A BYD dealership in Beijing on June 4, 2025.

China’s trading partners have often accused the country of flooding the global market with cheap Chinese EVs. These days, similar accusations are flying within China, raising concerns about financial stress in the industry.
The official Communist Party paper, the People’s Daily, for example, published a commentary on Monday, titled “The ‘Price War’ In The Automotive Industry Leads Nowhere And Has No Future.”
“Disorderly ‘price wars’ squeeze profits across the chain, impacting the entire ecosystem and risking income declines for workers,” the paper warned. “Long-term, this ‘race to the bottom’ competition is unsustainable.”

Read more CNBC auto news

BYD is drawing the most fire after it announced price cuts in late May for many of its models. Some of the discounts are as steep as 34%. Its cheapest car, the Seagull mini hatchback, now costs only about $7,700, down from about $10,000.

The intense price war has led high-profile auto executives to sound the alarm — with the head of Great Wall Motor calling the industry “unhealthy.”
In an interview with Chinese news outlet Sina Finance on May 23, Great Wall Motor Chairman Wei Jianjun drew parallels to China’s moribund property sector and its now defunct poster child, developer Evergrande.
“An ‘Evergrande-like’ crisis already exists in the automotive industry,” he said. “It just hasn’t erupted yet.”
A government-backed industry group has also called on companies not to “dump” vehicles below the cost of production. In a statement, the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers took a veiled swipe at BYD.
“A certain automaker has taken the lead in launching significant price cuts and many companies have followed suit, triggering a new round of ‘price war’ panic,” the group said.
BYD dismissed Wei’s comment as alarmist and said it believes in fair competition in response to CAAM’s criticism.

BYD Seagull mini-hatchback on display at a Beijing dealership on June 6, 2025.

In a sign of further strain, sellers at the Beijing used car market told CNBC about a phenomenon known as “zero mileage used cars,” which is meant to help auto manufacturers and dealers inflate sales volumes. This happens when cars are registered and plated and then marked as sold, but haven’t ever been driven.
Ma said he is worried about where the fierce competition leads. He told CNBC he sees the impact of the intense competition on consumers who are already shy about spending in the down economy.
“With the price dropping like this, a lot of buyers might wait,” he said. More

FanDuel is adding a 50-cent surcharge on all Illinois wagers.
The move is designed to offset the high taxes in the state.
DraftKings said it “anticipates taking action and expects to share more information soon.”

FanDuel is upping the ante in Illinois with a new 50-cent surcharge on all wagers, and DraftKings may be next.
Flutter-owned FanDuel is introducing the charge to mitigate the impact of new taxes that the state instituted with its new budget, which disproportionately affect the two leading sportsbooks.

The new tax is applied to each wager that a sportsbook accepts — 25 cents per bet for the first 20 million wagers, 50 cents per wager after that.
“Should the state reverse its decision at any point in the future, FanDuel will immediately remove the $0.50 transaction fee,” Flutter said in a press release.
DraftKings may be following suit. In a statement issued on Tuesday, a company spokesperson said, “DraftKings anticipates taking action and expects to share more information soon.”
Combined, FanDuel and DraftKings account for about 75% of the Illinois sports betting market.
Citizens gaming analyst Jordan Bender estimates the new transaction fee will translate to $79 million in new 2026 revenue for DraftKings, or 5.4% of its projected EBITDA for that year, and $86 million for FanDuel, about 2% of EBITDA.

The Illinois tax comes on top of a progressive tax passed last year, which leaves the most successful sportsbooks paying taxes at a rate of 40%. Before the change, they were paying at 15%.
When that tax bill passed, DraftKings initially said it would pass along the costs to consumers. After massive backlash, it reversed course.
Now FanDuel has picked up the gauntlet to manage the impact.
“It is important to recognize that there is an optimal level for gaming tax rates that enables operators to provide the best experience for customers, maximize market growth and maximize revenue for states over time. We are disappointed that the Illinois Transaction Fee will disproportionately impact lower wagering,” said Flutter Entertainment CEO Peter Jackson in a statement.
There are a number of other state legislatures considering raising their own tax rates, including New Jersey, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan and Pennsylvania.
Jackson said the tax disproportionately punishes the companies that have invested the most in growing the regulated market, adding the fee will motivate gamblers to head to unregulated operators who don’t pay taxes and don’t have the same consumer protection.
And he said, the tax most affects recreational customers who make small bets.
“It is important to recognize that there is an optimal level for gaming tax rates that enables operators to provide the best experience for customers, maximize market growth and maximize revenue for states over time,” he said. More

Boeing booked 303 gross airplane orders in May, the most since December 2023.
The plane maker has increased production of its bestselling 737 Max planes to 38 a month, the FAA-imposed limit.
The manufacturer handed over 45 jets last month, in line with April, but nearly double the total of the same month last year.

Boeing 737 aircraft fuselages are pictured at the company’s Renton factory in Renton, Washington, on April 15, 2025.
Jason Redmond | AFP | Getty Images

Boeing’s gross orders for new airplanes hit 303 last month, the most since December 2023, as the company makes strides against its rival Airbus and works to stabilize production of its bestselling jets near the Federal Aviation Administration limit.
The manufacturer handed over 45 aircraft in May, in line with the month before but higher than the 24 it delivered a year earlier.

This year through May, Boeing delivered 220 airplanes to customers, while Airbus delivered 243 planes. Deliveries are key to Boeing and Airbus generating cash since the bulk of an airplane’s price is paid when the jet is handed over.
Net of cancellations and conversions, Boeing has logged orders for 512 planes this year, compared with 215 for Airbus. More orders could be signed next week at the Paris Air Show —  a trade event where companies get a chance to showcase new technology and aircraft, and strike deals.

Read more CNBC airline news

The FAA capped Boeing’s 737 Max production at 38 a month last year after a door plug blew out of a nearly new Max 9 as it climbed out of Portland, Oregon. While no one was seriously injured in the accident, the new safety crisis hit Boeing’s output.
Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg said the company is planning to stabilize its production line at the current rate around 38 a month and then could seek permission from the FAA to raise that rate.
Net of cancellations, Boeing logged 345 orders last month, 146 of them for 737 Maxes and 157 for 787 Dreamliners and yet-to-be-certified 777X planes in a massive wide-body order from Qatar Airways. The deal was signed during President Donald Trump’s visit to Doha, Qatar, last month.

Ortberg said late last month that Boeing expects to resume deliveries of planes to Chinese airlines this month after a pause during the trade war between the Trump administration and Beijing.
Including accounting adjustments, Boeing has received 606 net orders this year, and its backlog was 5,943 at the end of May.

Don’t miss these insights from CNBC PRO More