Researchers Put Google Gemini in Charge of an Entire Coffee Shop, and It’s Inexorably Driving It Out of Business

A Google Gemini-powered agent was put in charge of a Stockholm coffee shop with authority to hire, order supplies, and run operations.

The system completed some setup work, but it made poor inventory choices and wasted money on unnecessary purchases.

The café ended up operating at a loss, exposing clear limits in current AI agents’ business judgment.

The experiment also raised broader concerns about AI management decisions and their impact on jobs and costs.