What makes Amazons "Just Walk Out" Tech work?

It is humans and not AI that make the Amazons "Just Walk Out" Tech work

Amazon has a reputation of being at the bleeding edge of technology. Being heavily invested in some of the latest trends which includes AI it is expected and sometimes assumed that every time Amazon rolls out a new solution it would be backed by the latest technology.

Cut to 2018 when Amazon launched its "Just Walk Out" technology. This is a technology which adds several layers of innovation to the shopping experience of a customer.

Typically a store that deploys the "Just Walk Out" tech would see a customer walk in and simply pick up whatever he or she wants from the store.

Instead of walking to the billing section he simply walks out of the store. There is no need for checking out as is the case in day to day shopping.
Instead the bill is sent out to the customer later.

Imagine a busy day at a store with a lot of customers jostling for space to buy whatever they have to and later they live to stand in line to get the billing done and having to pay.

This can be quite a stressful situation on busy days and specially on weekends. With the "Just Walk Out" shopping technology all this is a thing of the past as the buyer simply walks out of the store without bothering about the check out stress, endless waiting and having to pay then and there.

It would be convenient to believe that like most tech solutions which tech giants like Amazon builds the solution would rely entirely on things like AI.

Artificial Intelligence is a game changer for building innovative solutions. however the road to perfection is not always via using high end tech.

It is reported that the "Just Walk Out" tech collects a lot of data points by deploying sensors and high end cameras in the stores.

Feeding all the data into the AI system may be time consuming and may not yield the desired results. Instead Amazon relies on human intelligence and sends out this information to a human team that sits in a far off land in India.

The team goes through the footage and the various data associated with the shopping activities of the customer right from the point he enters, picks up the stuff he needs and to the point he leaves the store.

Based on the human analysis of the information aided with the tech tools the billing is done and sent out to the customer.

In the process Amazon does not engage local workers and by sending the data to a far off land that is India Amazon manages to get the work done at a fraction of the cost of working with local workers.
Also the process is not 100% AI driven as might be assumed to be the case.

All tech may not be AI driven

While AI may provide the means to do a lot of things still it is not a magic bullet that can be the foundation to build every solution.
Instead a balance of human teamwork, AI and outsourcing could be the way to deliver cutting edge solutions and solutions with a human touch.

Cover Image created with Bing image creator.

Posted Using InLeo Alpha