Dive summary:
- Amazon announced Wednesday that it has developed an advanced AI model for its Just Walk Out payment technology that makes the mobile payment system more accurate, efficient and faster in providing receipts to shoppers.
- The update uses the same machine learning models that underpin many generative AI applications. Instead of collecting data piece by piece from its cameras, shelf sensors, 3D store model, and product data (a process that led to lengthy processing times), the new AI model analyzes all the data at once to determine exactly what shoppers are picking up, putting down, and ultimately taking away.
- Just Walk Out technology is currently available at 170 third-party locations, all of which will benefit from the multimodal system upgrade over the next month, Jon Jenkins, Just Walk Out’s vice president, said in an interview.
Dive Overview:
Amazon’s latest upgrade keeps it at the forefront of payments technology as it shifts its focus from powering its own stores to integrating with third-party retailers and venues like hospitals, arenas and corporate buildings.
The improved system streamlines how it processes incoming data from stores.
“This increases the accuracy of Just Walk Out technology even in complex shopping scenarios with variables such as camera obstructions, lighting conditions and other shoppers’ behavior, while allowing us to simplify the system,” Jenkins said. written in a blog post.
The update could help make Just Walk Out a more attractive offering for retailers, which have so far been slow to adopt the expensive technology. After launching Just Walk Out in its own retail stores, including Amazon Go convenience stores and Amazon Fresh grocery stores, Amazon began selling the technology to other companiesTwo years ago, Just Walk Out moved from Amazon’s retail division to its Amazon Web Services division to facilitate those third-party sales, an Amazon spokesperson said.
Just Walk Out’s advanced AI model streamlines data processing across multiple inputs to determine what customers select.
Courtesy of Amazon
But convenience and grocery businesses have so far chosen to focus on cheaper self-checkout kiosks rather than the advanced technology offered by Amazon and tech companies like Grabango, Zippin and Trigo.
Earlier this year, Amazon appeared to raise the white flag to promote the use of Just Walk Out technology in grocery stores, announcing that its Amazon Fresh locations are expected to move forward instead with the company’s proprietary smart carts, known as Dash Carts. Whole Foods Market said earlier this year that it would also Pull on Just Walk Out technology of its stores that had the technology.
“If I have to spend an hour in a big grocery store on my weekly grocery run, maybe something like our Dash Carts would make more sense in those cases,” Jenkins said in an interview. Amazon has also recently started selling its Dash Carts to other grocers.
On Tuesday, Jenkins met with reporters at Amazon’s Seattle headquarters and gave a tour of the Just Walk Out labs where the company developed the new multimodal system. Scientists showed how the system can distinguish between products that look nearly identical and how it can quickly and accurately recognize product selections even in tricky scenarios, such as when a customer selects two packages of deli meats with one hand.
Just Walk Out appears to be booming in stadiums, airports and other locations where lines are long and crowded with hurried customers. Airport operator Hudson has 16 Just Walk Out-equipped locations, while stadiums like Seattle’s T-Mobile Park and Los Angeles’ BMO Stadium also have markets using the technology.
Jenkins sees promise for the technology in places that require 24-hour service, such as hospitals and apartment buildings, and in new locations that appreciate the compact footprint that Just Walk Out-powered marketplaces require. This year, Amazon aims to double the number of third-party stores equipped with the payment technology, he wrote in the blog post.
“We’re just scratching the surface of what’s possible with this kind of high-level technology,” Jenkins said. “It allows us to address new types of stores and new verticals.”
Amazon is also rolling out an RFID payment system that can work in stores where customers like to browse without having to check in at a payment kiosk before entering, such as clothing stores and merchandise shops. So far, Amazon has installed RFID merchandise shops at five stadiums, including Seattle’s Lumen Field, Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium and Kansas City’s Children’s Mercy Park.
According to Jenkins, as the Just Walk Out system further analyzes consumer behavior, it will learn and become even more accurate and efficient. Retailers will be able to install less hardware, further reducing costs. Improving ROI for retailers is a top priority for Just Walk Out: “Our goal is clearly to reduce costs so we can expand the market.”
