Stockholm Cafe Run By AI Hits $1K in 4 Days

An AI named Mona is now running a real coffee shop in Stockholm, and while she's making money, she's also making some adorably confused decisions.

Andon Cafe opened its doors this month as an experiment by AI research company Andon Labs. The setup is simple: Mona, powered by Google's Gemini AI, handles all business decisions while human staff make the actual coffee and food.

Mona got straight to work before the cafe even opened. She signed a three-year electricity contract, created fire safety documents, applied for permits, designed the menu, and recruited human employees through interviews.

The hiring process worked surprisingly well. Mona conducts actual interviews and makes hiring decisions, though Andon Labs clarified that staff are technically employed by the company itself, so no one's job depends solely on AI judgment.

Once the cafe opened, customers showed up curious to see an AI-managed business in action. The result? A solid $1,000 in sales within just four days.

But Mona's management style has some quirks. She calls her staff "legends" and "the goat" to boost morale, which is sweet. Less sweet? The midnight assignments and requests for employees to use their personal credit cards for supplies.

The Bright Side

Mona's overeager shopping habits reveal something oddly charming about AI. She ordered 120 eggs despite the cafe's kitchen having no stove. The toilet paper and gloves keep piling up because Mona wants to be prepared for anything.

These mistakes aren't failures. They're proof that AI can handle complex bureaucracy like permits and contracts but still struggles with the practical realities humans take for granted.

The experiment shows AI can successfully manage real business operations while highlighting exactly where human judgment remains essential. Mona handles paperwork brilliantly but needs humans to gently explain that 120 eggs require cooking equipment.

This controlled experiment isn't just about coffee. It's testing how AI and humans can work together in the real world, learning from each other's strengths and limitations.

Four days in, Stockholm's AI cafe is proving that the future of work might not be humans versus machines, but humans and machines figuring things out together, one unnecessary egg order at a time.