Amazon is phasing out its cashier-free “Just Walk Out” technology from Fresh grocery stores in the United States about seven years after it was first announced.
The program allowed customers to check into an Amazon Fresh store with a credit card, mobile app, or Amazon One handheld reader, pick directly from the shelves, and “just walk out” with their items.
But reports this week indicated that it wasn’t actually AI technology doing all the work.
Although Amazon says a system of scanners, cameras and generative AI powered the technology, about 700 out of 1,000 Just Walk Out sales in 2022 had to go through human review by Amazon’s team in India, The Information reported this week.
Cashiers were off-site and watched on video what U.S. customers picked up, put down and took away, according to the report.
Amazon Fresh store on March 4, 2021, featuring Just Walk Out shopping. Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images
However, Amazon disputed how many purchases required human review, with Nathan Strauss, an Amazon spokesperson, telling Retail Dive that employees reviewed “a small minority” of shopping visits if Amazon’s technology failed to determine with what a shopper left the store.
“The characterization that Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers is inaccurate,” Strauss said. “The primary role of our Machine Learning data workers is to annotate video images, which is necessary to continually improve the underlying machine learning model that powers Just Walk Out technology.”
Related: Amazon adds new AI for sellers as it plans its first ‘big spring sale’
The information was the first to report that Amazon is removing Just Walk Out from most of its stores, instead replacing the technology with “Dash Carts” that track what shoppers choose and show the running total as they move through the store.
Shoppers can still skip the checkout line.
According to The Verge, smaller Amazon stores and grocery stores in the UK will continue to have Just Walk Out.
An Amazon blog post from September shows that the company characterized Just Walk Out as a combination of computer vision, sensors, and artificial intelligence, without mentioning human review.
Related: Amazon’s $1 billion innovation fund is looking to invest in a specific type of startup
“Customer trust and privacy are critical to the experience,” the post reads, noting that Just Walk Out did not use or collect biometric information from shoppers.
As of September, Just Walk Out was available in more than 70 Amazon stores and 85 third-party stores in the US, UK and Australia.