As of 13 August 2026, AI can only partly choose a commercial coffee machine for your UK café.

What to actually do

1. Hand it to a person

   The route this page recommends

   A person who owns the outcome does this end to end, worth it when the failure is dear.

2. Use a tool built for this

   Second choice

3. Do it yourself

   The distant third

   A chat interface, chat-fluent skill, and roughly 1 hour until you can act on the result.

   How to actually do it

   1. Measure the available counter space, note nearby power and water connections, and record your opening hours, busiest trading period, expected drinks volume, menu and staff experience.
   2. Collect your purchase or lease budget, preferred machine type, any existing water filtration, drainage details and the service response you would need from a UK supplier.
   3. Paste those details into the prompt and ask the chatbot to use current UK supplier pages and manufacturer documents, with a source link for every important specification.
   4. Open the cited manufacturer and supplier pages and compare each drafted dimension, electrical requirement, water requirement, price or quotation status, warranty term and availability against the original source.
   5. Send the shortlist and the supplier question list to at least one relevant UK equipment supplier, asking them to confirm installation requirements, water treatment, servicing, training, warranty and parts support for your premises.
   6. Ask an electrician or installer to confirm that the proposed machine can be safely connected at the café, then remove any option whose site requirements or service arrangements are not confirmed.
   7. Choose the machine only after comparing the confirmed quotations, installation requirements, capacity, service terms and total running responsibilities with your budget and trading plan.

   Prompt

   Act as a UK commercial coffee-equipment researcher. Help me shortlist and choose a commercial coffee machine for this café.
   
   Café details:
   - Location: [UK town or region]
   - Opening hours: [hours and days]
   - Expected drinks per hour at the busiest period: [estimate or unknown]
   - Expected drinks per day: [estimate or unknown]
   - Menu: [espresso drinks, batch coffee, tea, cold drinks and any other relevant items]
   - Number of staff making drinks: [number or unknown]
   - Staff experience: [description]
   - Counter space and machine dimensions available: [measurements or unknown]
   - Electrical supply: [known details or unknown]
   - Water supply, drainage and filtration: [known details or unknown]
   - Budget: [purchase or lease budget]
   - New or used: [preference]
   - Preferred features or brands: [details or none]
   - Service location and response requirements: [details]
   
   Research current UK-available commercial machines and compare suitable options in a table. Include machine type, group configuration, dimensions, electrical requirements, water and drainage requirements, likely service needs, warranty terms, price or quotation status, supplier, and source links. Do not invent missing specifications, prices, warranty terms or availability. Mark anything that needs confirmation with the supplier.
   
   Recommend a first choice, a lower-cost alternative and a higher-capacity alternative only if the evidence supports them. Explain which café requirement supports each choice and identify any reason one should be rejected. Separate facts from your judgement. Include a supplier question list covering installation, electrical work, plumbing, water treatment, delivery, training, maintenance, parts, warranty and response times. End with the checks I must complete before placing an order. Do not treat this as a final purchase approval.

   Open it prefilled in ChatGPT or Claude, or copy it into Gemini, which takes no prefill link.