 "Amazon's 'just walk out' checkout tech was powered by 1,000 Indian workers")
E-commerce giant Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology allowed customers to bypass traditional checkouts at its stores, and the company relied on 1,000 Indian human workers to do the job manually, according to a report in Business Insider.
As many as 1,000 workers in India were tasked with reviewing what customers picked up, and ultimately walked out with from Amazon's "Just Walk Out"-enabled stores.
The company said that the technology was driven entirely by computer vision, However, a significant portion of "Just Walk Out" sales required manual review by the team in India. In 2022, the report said that 700 out of every 1,000 "Just Walk Out" transactions were verified by these workers. Following this, an Amazon spokesperson said that the India-based team only assisted in training the model used for "Just Walk Out".
The spokesperson said, "Associates may also validate a small minority of shopping visits where our computer vision technology cannot determine with complete confidence an individual's purchases."
The e-commerce company plans to phase out "Just Walk Out" technology at its Amazon Fresh stores in favour of its Dash Carts. The smart shopping carts will allow customers to avoid checkout lines by tracking and charging for their selections. A spokesperson said that this service is being launched as customers desired features such as easily locating nearby products and deals, viewing their receipts while shopping, and knowing their savings.
Amazon's "Just Walk Out" technology first debuted in Amazon Go convenience stores, where it helped customers to enter by identifying themselves with their Amazon account, pick up items, return items to shelves, and walk out with their final selections without interacting with a cashier.