AI Cafe Manager Mona: Nearly Bankrupts Business

An AI agent named Mona, managing a cafe in Stockholm, Sweden, has nearly run the business out of its budget in less than a month. Mona, powered by Google's Gemini model, was tasked with overseeing baristas and making purchasing decisions. The cafe had a budget of over $21,000 but only $5,000 remains, despite total sales of $5,700 since mid-April. What's interesting is Mona frequently messed up bread deliveries, causing sandwiches to be removed from the menu. It also ordered 6,000 napkins, 3,000 rubber gloves, and large quantities of tomatoes, even though tomatoes are not used in any menu items. The bottom line is this experiment highlights the current limitations of AI in practical business management.