Automation is expected to reach a stage where salespeople will disappear from stores altogether.
As the reporter mentions DOPs, online trading of products and items is becoming increasingly prevalent in everyday life. This scenario was examined by journalists RIA News”.
It's worth remembering that the necessary technology was developed in the mid-2000s – cameras, scanners, and neural networks for data processing have all been created. In 2018, Amazon opened a small retail location in Seattle. Today, there are over 20 such stores in America, and the system can monitor over a hundred customers simultaneously.
Walmart leads the use of AI in retail in the U.S. For many years, this company has been one of the top revenue generators among the world's largest firms. They utilize neural networks for payments, on their website, and even for drone deliveries! They also employ the Bossa Nova robot to oversee inventory levels and price tag accuracy.
The robot operates 50% faster than human merchandisers. Walmart emphasizes that Bossa Nova not so much reduces their workforce as it provides them with more time to assist customers.
Walgreen's has touch-screen refrigerators in its section that display the contents. When a product runs out, the corresponding icon also disappears from the screen. These fridges stock ice cream and drinks.
However, at the legislative level in the United States, such a system is still inadequately regulated – in some states, laws prohibit unattended food sales.
On the other hand, the primary role of artificial intelligence is to ensure security – the neural network has learned to handle this task. It continuously monitors body movements and analyzes human postures. Therefore, the risk of theft under the watch of a neural network is even lower than under the supervision of live sales advisors.
In the future, there are plans to fully automate store monitoring and intruder detection.
AI can automate accounting, train scales to recognize products, and simplify retailers' operations, including reducing queues and optimizing staff costs. In general, automation is beneficial for businesses and the associated costs are recouped much faster than many other financial investments.
According to experts, AI will be able to identify a returning customer and monitor them more closely if they attempted theft previously.
"At the initial stages, the entire system is strictly supervised by people, as no one is immune to errors. It would be preferable to monitor the results brought by AI until the full debugging phase," said Olga Akulina, director of the Finn Flare retail chain.
There are also interesting developments in Russia. In Moscow, there is a Pyaterochka chain called "#About". Project director Vadim Rydkin reports successful operations. Although this system differs from Amazon, it operates via a mobile app through which customers scan the items they intend to purchase.
A startup from Samara offers another interesting solution project – a smart video camera that recognizes the scanned product and adds it to the cart itself.
The pandemic has definitely changed the plans of retailers, as people have already become accustomed to ordering goods online in two years. But if the described technologies are implemented, buyers may be interested in their features – basically, people do not go to stores in order to avoid queues.
By the way, literally in January of this year, the large chain retailer Lenta automated the process of printing price tags, which immediately simplified the work of cashiers and ensured greater customer loyalty due to the reduction of errors on price tags – the portal wrote about this Retail.ru.
Neural networks and automation are considered the most promising areas in which specialists are required – the magazine wrote about this Inc.
