You might have even noticed the change that our world is transforming into a tech-savvy world. Every day, there is a new invention of machines that are capable of doing work that was earlier done manually. These robots are programmed in a way that they can carry out simple and repetitive tasks as well as complex duties which require labor. You might have even felt the change around you as machines are increasingly taking over work that earlier people used to do.
Futuristic stores in middle east
One of the latest news about the same is from the Middle East. In a recent interview, Hani Weiss, CEO of retail at Majid Al Futtaim exclaimed that this is how the future will look in context to the middle East. The experimental shop named Carrefour City+ has been transformed into an automatic retail shop. It is a perfect example of how retail providers are finding a combination between software and artificial intelligence along with managing labor.
Benefits for retail owners
Introducing automatic cashiers are believed to be much beneficial for the retail shop owners as it helps them to save on labor costs as well as get rid of the long lines which are due to the slow service of the cashier person. These robots are also helpful in collecting critical data related to the behavior that people exhibit while shopping in such retail stores. Weiss explains that the form would be using the data to improve on the quality of experience provided by the retail stores to its customers. However, customers must give their consent to the form to collect the information about the same.
Confidentiality concerns over data
Carrefour also promises that the data shall be kept completely confidential and would not be shared with any third party under any circumstance. The process of collection of data also raised a series of debates among the people related to the privacy concerns of the customers who would be sharing their information with the firm. A similar debate has been happening in the United States of America where people were concerned about their confidentiality while shopping in futuristic stores, namely Amazon go. It is also expected that this debate is less likely to become critical as the United Arab Emirates is an autocratic country as well as it accommodates a population that has one of the world’s highest per capita.
Role of humans still crucial
In the pandemic, the way the world functions has changed dramatically. Companies and even retail stores have become much automated and require less human contact to ensure the safety of the customers. Although this is also alarming as there would be significant job loss in the industry where the robots would be taking over the work which was earlier done by humans. However, Carrefour CEO has a short that the human workers would be required to support the customers and assist the machine. He also insisted that there would be no future without humans.
This combination of human effort and artificial intelligence would be an example for many retail stores in the future.