This AI agent runs a café: what went wrong

The Californian startup Andon Labs is committed to experiments in which it tests the extent to which AI agents are capable of running companies independently. So far, some of these have failed spectacularly.

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After Andon Labs let an AI agent open a store in San Francisco in spring 2026 – where he forgot to hire human employees – a café experiment in Sweden is now causing a stir. Andon Café in Stockholm will be run by an AI agent based on Google’s Gemini, AP News reports.

AI agent manages cafe

Here the AI ​​had thought of getting human help via Linkedin and Indeed, who would serve the coffee and prepare the snacks. The AI ​​agent also independently concluded contracts for the electricity connection and internet connection and obtained permission to operate the café and outdoor catering.

However, weaknesses became apparent at the latest when the orders for the café were placed. Because according to AP News, the AI ​​got around 6,000 napkins, four first aid kits and 3,000 rubber gloves. The café is quite small. Canned tomatoes were also on the order list. However, these are not used for any of the dishes on offer.

Problems with orders

There are also regular problems with bread orders. Here the AI ​​orders far too much on some days and too little on other days. In the latter case, the human employees are then forced to remove some sandwiches from the menu.

According to Hanna Petersson, an employee in the tech department at Andon Labs, this is due to the limited so-called context window, i.e. the maximum amount of information that can be processed at the same time. If old orders from this area, which is important for the AI, disappear, the AI ​​agent would forget what it ordered in the past.

Budget is almost exhausted

It is unclear whether the AI ​​agent can achieve its goal of running the café profitably in this way. The café has currently made over $5,700 in sales since opening in mid-April 2026. However, there is only less than $5,000 left of the original budget of a good $21,000.