'Human Reviewers' Check Payment Items
700 Out of 1000 Cases Are Practically Manual
Cost Surge Burden Leads to Gradual Reduction
Amazon Go, the unmanned store that debuted in 2016, was a fully automated store where customers could simply pick up the items they wanted and walk out without needing to scan barcodes, with payment processed automatically.
However, this store has recently been treated as a money pit and has faced a series of closures. Even more shocking news has emerged: what was thought to be a cutting-edge automated store actually relied on over 1,000 remote Indian workers who manually viewed and categorized product labels for the system to function.
It is a system where you only need to pick up the items without going through the checkout counter, and artificial intelligence (AI) and sensors automatically process the payment. [Image source=Amazon YouTube]
On the 3rd (local time), the U.S. tech media outlet The Information reported that Amazon is gradually closing its Amazon Go stores in the United States. Amazon Go is a fully automated unmanned store where multiple sensors installed on the store ceiling track customers' items and automatically process payments. Amazon has called this technology "Just Walk Out."
However, the media revealed that behind this technology, thousands of inexpensive workers were actually needed because accurate payment was difficult to achieve with sensors and QR code scans alone. Video footage from cameras inside Amazon Go stores is transmitted to remote work locations, where about 1,000 Indian employees watch the videos and manually categorize product labels accurately.
An Amazon Go employee checking the QR code scan system at an unmanned store. Photo by Reuters Yonhap News
Despite the advanced technology and considerable manpower involved, Amazon plans to gradually phase out Just Walk Out. Instead, Amazon will introduce a more traditional unmanned store solution: self-checkout counters.
Just Walk Out was first unveiled in 2016, and Amazon had high hopes that this technology would make a significant impact in the grocery shopping sector. However, Just Walk Out encountered difficulties from the start. It took too long for customers to complete automatic payments and receive receipts after purchasing products, and the scanner and sensor system tracking the items customers picked up occasionally malfunctioned. The bigger problem was the exorbitantly high cost of this automated system.
Ultimately, Amazon had to place another "human reviewer" behind the automated sensor payment system. As of 2022, 700 out of every 1,000 payment transactions processed by Just Walk Out were reviewed by human workers. In other words, 70% of the unmanned store payment system was effectively manual. Amazon's internal target for human review was 50 out of 1,000 transactions, so this was a significant miss.
The Just Walk Out technology was introduced in a limited number of stores in the U.S. and the U.K., as well as some convenience stores and sales points inside soccer and baseball stadiums. Although Amazon is scaling back Just Walk Out, it plans to continue improving the technology itself.
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