Walmart-owned Sam’s Club is ramping up its deployment of AI-powered checkout-free technology, with plans to expand the service to all its stores by the end of the year. The technology, which has been rolled out to over 120 clubs across the United States, leverages a combination of computer vision and digital tech to scan customers’ carts and verify payment for the items inside. Sam’s Club emphasizes the use of AI in the background, which accelerates the process and adapts over time as it analyzes thousands of exit transactions across different locations.
Prior to the implementation of this technology, Sam’s Club members had to queue at the store’s exit to have their receipts checked manually. The new solution streamlines the checkout process, allowing customers to leave the store without the need for double-checking their purchases. This not only expedites exits, with members leaving 23% faster, but also frees up store staff to focus on other tasks.
Sam’s Club’s announcement includes a veiled jab at rival Amazon, highlighting that its technology is being deployed as ‘other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts’ – a clear reference to Amazon’s partial withdrawal of its Just Walk Out technology. Amazon has previously faced criticism that its AI tech relied on human workers to review transactions, a claim that the company has countered by stating that machine learning powers its technology and that contractors are solely involved in annotating data to enhance the system.
