At Octane Coffee, Robots Brew, Data Drives the Line and Automation Halves Labor While Doubling Speed |

Octole coffee Wetting strongly on automation to redesign the future of coffee. The founder and CEO Adrian Deasy says that the inspiration was to see Starbucks and to dominate Dunkin 'the middle west with long drive-thread lines. “We couldn't find out why someone would wait for a mediocre coffee in the lane for more than 20 minutes,” she says. “As soon as we dealt with the possible work savings, it was a child's play to develop our timely and employed café shop model.” This vision became a reality in October 2023 when octagonal coffee opened its first location in Pewaukee, Wisconsin after a stress test.

In contrast to many companies that introduce automation in a piece of fashion-thinking about the kiosks to replace order representatives-was developed on the first day of Octane-Kaffee to remove all human workers from the customer-oriented process. “Most companies try to replace baby steps to replace certain human roles and tasks. This can result in a ROI, but it also creates a lot of technical debt and trust in external service providers,” explains Deasy. “We are not dependent on third-party providers for all the different tech pieces. We offer the entire service, support and custom hardware.”

Milwaukee and Pewaukee nearby are perhaps not a breeding ground for Drive-Thru coffee, but Deasy, an engineer through training with a background in manufacture and in CAD design, says it is the right place to start. “Almost all of our team members grew up and loved in Wisconsin where we live,” she says. “There are many local universities for talent and automation supply companies for parts. Wisconsin is full of hard-working and talented people who love to build things.”

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The first reactions of customers often contain unbelief in speed and simplicity. “Estimated customers usually make a double take when you pick up your drinks. If you get your eye forward, your pickup experience is usually less than 30 seconds. Most people look at your drink and then look back on the window and we can find that there is a moment.

Behind the scenes, Octane Coffee uses sensors, digital measurements and cameras to ensure that drinks are constant and prepared. Drinks are adjusted on request and made shortly before collection. Even if the company uses a handful of “ambassador” during the rush hours, the workprint is less than half of a typical coffee-drive-thru. Most of the time there is no one on site. Each location only requires about an hour of human work a day, which is dedicated to cleaning and filling.

The price strategy should compete directly with Starbucks and Dunkin. “We rate our menu 10–15% cheaper than our local Starbucks competitors, and there is also no tip function in our app, which saves the customer another 10 to 20%,” says Deasy. “We use first -class ingredients and, if possible, support other local companies so that our gears are much higher than our competitors for corporate coffee. As soon as we have reached some scale effects, we can further reduce prices.”

It was not easy to build and provide a robot coffee system from scratch. “When I started there was no framework to start such a company of regulatory, government and local city level. I had to find out,” says Deasy. Reliability, redundancy and software that could edit countless “What IWS” were critical hurdles. Octane now monitors constant data flows to fix problems from a distance and work closely with established devices in coffee, cooling, ice and fountain systems.

The competitive landscape accepts with players who take shape, with players Cafe XPresent Kronkaffee in SingaporeAnd Bird In Brooklyn also on robot baristas. But Octane's fully automated model with the drive-throver model, however, differentiates it from these kiosk or café-based approaches.

Deasy sees automation as a long -term solution for the industrial action in the industry. “It is already difficult to find workers for current restaurants and cafes. We expect wages to rise and put even more pressure on their price models. Automation is a long -term solution and we will see more acceptance because this type of equipment becomes mainstream.”

The next steps include the expansion of Wisconsin in 2026 and opening the model to franchising. But for Deasy it's not just about efficiency or cost savings. “We believe that the best technology should be synonymous with magic,” she says, referring to the quote from Arthur C. Clarke. “We were very aware of the design of our customer experience in order to create more about the quality, the value and the time savings than to make the gadget of a robot that makes it a drink.”