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Starbucks CEO Brian Niccol said on Tuesday that the company will increase investment in employees and decrease investment in equipment, including the previously touted automation system. This breaks with the broader industry trend of relying more on technology for store operations. Niccol stated that increasing manpower is essential for improving customer experience: "Over the past few years, we have been reducing labor in stores, thinking that equipment could make up for the decrease in labor. We have found that, in practice, this is not an accurate assumption." As a pilot project, Starbucks has increased the number of employees in five stores. By May, 1500 to 2000 US stores will have added employees, with the number increasing to around 3000 by the end of the year.