7 Strategic Changes Starbucks’ New Ceo Is Implementing To Boost Sales

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

November 7, 2024

Starbucks’ new CEO, Brian Nicсol, has laid out an ambitious strategy to reverse declining sales over the past three quarters and revitalize the company’s growth. While a full recovery plan is underway, Nicсol is starting with key adjustments aimed at improving customer experience and operational efficiency in the U.S. market.

One core goal in these changes is to serve a personalized drink to each customer in under four minutes—a standard that currently covers only half of Starbucks’ transactions. In addition, the company plans to reduce new store openings and renovations in fiscal 2025, redirecting those resources toward other growth initiatives, according to CFO Rachel Ruggeri.

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Here are the seven primary ways Nicсol is setting up Starbucks for success:

Streamlining Mobile Ordering and Payments
To tackle issues with mobile orders cluttering counters and causing delays, Niсcol aims to improve app accuracy, so customers know exactly when their orders are ready. He’s also looking to limit customization options, making mobile orders less complex and easier for baristas to fulfil.
Simplifying the Menu
To speed up service and improve quality, Nicсol plans to reduce menu complexity by focusing on fewer but better options. This will allow baristas to make drinks more consistently and limit the items that don’t meet the four-minute preparation goal.
Enhancing Coffee Shops’ Personal Touch
As part of a “Back to Starbucks” initiative, Nicсol wants to return to the brand’s roots as a “third place” where customers can relax, work, or socialize. This includes updating shop interiors with more comfortable seating, personal touches like serving drinks in ceramic mugs for in-cafe customers and adding warmth and layers to the design.
Reinstating Self-Serve Add-On Bars
Add-on bars with milk and sugar, which were moved behind the counter during the pandemic, will return to their original setup, freeing up barista time and improving customer convenience.
Ensuring Better Staffing
Starbucks is increasing average barista hours to reduce turnover and improve consistency. Niсcol also aims to better align staffing with demand by scheduling appropriately for peak and off-peak hours.
Redefining Marketing
Nicсol is broadening Starbucks’ marketing focus beyond Starbucks Rewards members to appeal to a wider customer base and showcase the brand’s high coffee quality. Promotions will be less discount-driven to ease the workload on baristas.
Removing Surcharge on Milk Alternatives
Starting November 7th, Starbucks will eliminate the surcharge on milk substitutes, allowing customers to save over 10% on some drinks—a change that has been long-requested by customers.
Through these targeted adjustments, Nicсol is working to bring Starbucks back on track, aiming for improved service times, better staff retention, and an enriched in-store experience. This recovery strategy promises to refine the brand’s offerings and build stronger connections with customers.

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Cloudflare Sets New Default To Separate Search Crawlers From AI Bots

by THEFUTURE.TEAM

July 2, 2026

Cloudflare has drawn a sharper line between traditional search and artificial intelligence.

Beginning September 15, 2026, the company will change its default settings to block so-called mixed-use crawlers from pages that run ads, unless a site owner chooses otherwise. The policy applies to new Cloudflare customers, new sites created by existing customers, and all current free customers.

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A Clearer Divide In Web Access

The shift could materially reshape how AI companies collect web data for model training and agentic products. Cloudflare’s central argument is straightforward: most publishers want their content to remain visible in search and accessible through certain AI services, but they do not want that same material repurposed without compensation.

In Cloudflare’s view, the problem is not crawling itself. It is the blending of three different functions: search, agentic use, and training into a single bot that makes it difficult for website owners to set meaningful boundaries.

The Google Question

Cloudflare pointedly referenced the “world’s largest search engine,” an unmistakable nod to Google, arguing that it has access to roughly twice as much information as rival AI companies because it makes it harder for customers to stay discoverable without also being used for AI.

Google has disputed that framing. The company offers Google Extended, a crawler setting that lets publishers opt out of having content used for training and AI products such as Gemini apps and Vertex AI, without affecting visibility in Google Search. At the same time, Googlebot still crawls for Search and for AI-powered features such as AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Publishers Want Reach, Not Exploitation

Matthew Prince, Cloudflare’s co-founder and chief executive, said the company is moving quickly because the internet is now dominated by machine traffic.

“Now that the majority of traffic on the Internet is non-human, we must go further and act faster so that a sustainable ecosystem can emerge,” Prince said, referring to the recent milestone in which bots surpassed human traffic online sooner than expected.

Prince added that Cloudflare’s tools and partnerships are designed to give publishers more visibility and commercial leverage, while also rewarding AI companies that are transparent about how they use content.

From Pay Per Crawl To Pay Per Use

Cloudflare has increasingly positioned itself as a gatekeeper for publishers looking to assert control in the AI era. The company already offers tools to block AI bots, along with a marketplace called Pay Per Crawl, which lets websites charge AI systems for scraping.

That framework is now expanding into Pay Per Use, which Cloudflare says will allow publishers to charge AI companies when content creates value, not merely when it is fetched. In practical terms, that shifts the economics from extraction to monetization.

Cloudflare says the move may also reduce waste. Its data suggests more than half of crawl traffic from AI bots is spent revisiting pages that have not changed, consuming bandwidth and compute without adding fresh value for either side.

Early Partners Signal The Commercial Model

To launch the new system, Cloudflare is working with Ceramic.ai and You.com. Under the opt-in model, publishers can be paid when their content appears in Ceramic’s AI search results or when You.com accesses premium material.

Cloudflare says other AI companies can adapt the model to fit their own products. The broader message is clear: the era of unrestricted crawling is giving way to one in which access, attribution, and compensation are increasingly negotiated rather than assumed.

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