Shopping Assistant

New Jersey retailers from Big-Box stores to supermarkets are adopting AI Technology

By: Danial Munoz
NorthJersey.com
USA Today Network - New Jersey

..... You enter a grocery store with a shopping cart as you're done countless times before.
..... But there's a difference. This cart boasts a computer screen. The computer lets you go through quick tutorial. Or you could select to begin shopping.
..... If you opt for the tutorial, you're shown how to scan your purchases, how to add product, how to find items on sale, and how to check out once you're finished shopping.
..... A green light surrounds the cart to show that you've successfully put your purchase in the digital cart. You don't need to keep tabs on your items. The cart, powered by artificial intelligence technology does that for you.
..... This tech is being used by the grocery chain ShopRite at a handful of stores across the state - Bloomfield and Sparta in North Jersey, as well as Spotswood and Byram. [NJ]
..... From chatbots for customer service to smart shopping carts, investor management and marketing, retailers across New Jersey and the nation have rapidly embraced AI technology.
..... AI, and more specifically generative AI, is a technology that processes data from the Internet like a human brain to cerate content - text, pictures, video, music - based on users instructions.
..... It's emergence has meant that people who weren't computer scientists and didn't know how to write code could get their computer to perform tasks in seconds that would have take them minutes, hours or days in the past: respond to emails, write marketing brochures, design a magazine cover.
..... At the forefront was OpenAI, a company based in San Francisco that was founded in 2015 ti cerate a generative AI platform available to the public.
..... Its financial backers have included Elon Musk, Amazon and Microsoft. and it has rolled out ChatGPT, which generates text, and DALL-E, which generates digital images, with new versions providing increasingly human-like responses.
..... "It's like a Wild West," Aaron Price, chief executive officer of tech United, a trade group for New jersey;s high-tech industry, said in an April [2024] interview.
..... Big-box stores including BJ's, Walmart, Home Depot and Target are employing artificial intelligence for a variety of sues, as are such grocery chains as ShopRite and Stop & Shop, and fast-food locations including Taco Bell.
..... Target said in June [2024] that it would begin using an AI chatbot called Store Companion, available on worker's handheld devices, to help them answer customers questions.
..... Home Depot said it would begin working with Google Cloud for inventory management, and Taco Bell is suing AI at the drive-thru locations.
..... At ShopRite, the grocery chain store is experimenting with AI-powered smart carts called caper cart by Instacart, including at ShopRite of Brookdale in Bloomfield. [NJ] It allows customers to scan their items as they're added to their carts. The technology also provides recommendation and enables a person to directly check out from their cart.
..... Stop & Shop uses AI with Marty the Robot, a googly-eyed assistant responsible for inventory-tracking on shelves, a task that would typically be done by human workers, to "expedite restocking and price corrections," and also tracking any hazards on the floor, said spokesperson Caroline Medeiros.
..... The robot is being employed at over 300 locations across the Northeast, Medeiros said.

Shopping with voice commands on a Walmart app

..... Walmart announced last October [2023] that it would be using AI to enhance ht search functions for Online shopping and help shoppers with complex purchases.
..... The big-box chain is also experimenting with an AI-powered voice-assisted, hands-free shopping technology -a phone app that lets customers shop with voice commands, "engaging in back-and-forth conversation with the assistant, booking pickup and delivery times."
..... Klarna, a global payment company known for its "buy not, pay later" model, said it was able to use an AI assistant that could complete the work of 7000 full time agents.
..... Grocery stores could use AI to recommend products, to customers that they're more likely to buy base don their shopping history, said Madhavi Chakrabarty, an assistant professor of marketing at the Rutgers Business School.
..... "Humans forget and make mistakes," she said in an email. "If they have an ally in their shopping platform, which can remind them when they need to reorder or renew, it becomes easy for buyers."

Face-scanning tech at North Jersey's malls?

..... Triple five, which owns the American Dream mega-mall in East Rutherford, [NJ] is already using AI at another of tis properties, the Mall of America in Minnesota.
..... In June, [2024] the Canadian company announced that it would be using facial recognition technology, which relies on AI for its security system at the nation's largest mall.
..... The system in place is made by CoreSight. It works by scanning the mall's video security feed and matching any faces with those on its "persons of interest" database maintained by law enforcement.
..... Critics panned the tech as an invasion of privacy and warned that there could be false positives.
..... A representative for American Dream said it isn't using that equipment, but did not clarify whether it was being considered and whether it could be employed in the future at the East Rutherford [NJ] mall.
..... Representatives for Simon Property Group, which owns Rockaway Townsquare in Morris County and The Shops at Riverside in Hanckensack, [NJ] did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did The Mall at Short Hills. Garden State Plaza officials [NJ] did not say whether the mall is using that technology.
..... Bergen Town Center in Paramus is not using the technology, nor is Willowbrook Mall in Wayne or Paramus Park in Bergen County, [NJ] mall representative said.

Holes in the technology, losing customers trust

..... Workers at Target have complained about the use of the AI chatbot, Forbes reported, saying the technology is frustrating and more distracting than useful.
..... In April, [2024] Amazon Fresh ditched its "Just Walk Out" technology, which uses cameras artificial intelligence and sensor trackers to gauge what products are taken off the shelves, enabling customers literally to grab and go, so long as they've already added a credit card or other payment method upon entry.
..... Media reports said the Just Walk Out technology allegedly relied on over 1,000 people in India watching and labeling the videos, manually adding up the items as customers shopped. Amazon has pushed back against those claims. the Verge reported.
..... "whenever there is implementation of automation technologies, there is fear form employees. they will wonder it their jobs are in jeopardy," said Tom Taulli, author of the book "Generative AI: How ChatGPT and Other AI Tools Will Revolutionize Business."
..... The data being handled could be sensitives, Taulli added, "so there needs to be strong guardrails." and costs for the AI tech could be steep, he said.
..... As for AI's use in customer service, the technology can supplement but should not replace human agents, Taulli said.
..... Consumers may become wary over the possibility that their data is being sold misused or abused in some way, said Chakrabarty, of Rutgers.
..... "In order for them to share more personal data, they need to trust the platform," Chakrabarty said. "Any misstep will lead to losing trust, which is very hard to get back."

Keeping it close to the vest

..... NorthJersey.com and The Record contacted nearly 40 retail venues that do business in New Jersey to ask if and how they are using AI. Some declined to comment. Most simply did not respond.
..... "Some may be quiet about AI because the programs could be in the early stages and the results are being evaluated," Taulli said.
..... "I can understand why companies many be hesitant, especially if they are at the early stages of implementation, " he continued. "You do not want to over promise."

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