Neon-dripped scenes of Shanghai and Chongqing. Bullet trains. Driverless cars. From the outside, it’s hard not to see China as a vision of the future. Now, Manner Coffee and Kimi – an AI assistant developed by Chinese firm Moonshot AI – have brought a slice of that future to life.
Their collaboration inserts AI into a familiar daily habit: buying coffee. And here, the usual order-number and pickup system are playfully adapted. Customers ordering through Manner’s mini-program are given an AI-generated pickup line – not an attempt at android flirting, but a phrase to match with the one printed on their coffee cup.
Kimi’s phrases range from observations on the relationship between humans and machines, to poems on coffee. The collaboration centres on the launch of a co-branded drink, the Thick Cheese Latte, and alongside it, Manner has added merchandise and discount coupons.
Kimi is a large-language model, similar to Gemini or ChatGPT – not the kind of partner you’d expect for a coffee chain. So what’s in it for them? The collaboration marks a move beyond software into consumer-facing brand expression. As AI increasingly enters the day-to-day elements of our lives, being seen as a part of daily life becomes useful.
Rather than a deep technical integration, the partnership functions as an experiment in visibility. Can AI brands exist as part of everyday experience, not just productivity workflows is the question at hand.
In this case it seems the answer is yes. Consumer reactions have been positive, and both Manner and Kimi have been splashed across socials feeds. So what next? Are we going to see a wave of AI/service-sector collabs? It’s likely that’s the way the world was heading before this collaboration came along. The China-focused futurists are going to have a field day.
