Bots pick up/get more shifts but not all retail trials thrive
Robots and other automated systems have picked up work in recent years straightening out aisles in grocery stores, answering questions at hardware stores and even handling checkouts at convenience stores. But at least one set of bots is now scanning the help wanted ads for a new occupation.
Walmart recently ended a partnership with San FranciscoBossa Nova, which had been working with the discount retail giant to set up robots in 1,000 locations to help with inventory management.
The Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer is still investing in tech to help with other tasks, and Bossa Nova is already planning its next assignment for its robots, but the end of the deal pens a different narrative than the one that most companies have been telling.
Normally, robots are heralded as the faster, more accurate version of a human employee that takes on the mundane tasks and frees up time for employees to focus on other parts of the business. Now, partly because of COVID-19, the role of robots and automation in retail may be changing.
“It was surprising, but with the backdrop of the pandemic, it’s almost like all bets are off,” said Chuck Brandt, deputy director, technology development at the Advanced Robotics for Manufacturing Institute, which is based in Hazelwood and fosters projects to develop technology in manufacturing.
“Whether it’s Walmart or Bossa Nova or Amazon or FedEx, their business models and operations have been impacted one way or another and in ways they were not anticipating since last March,” Mr. Brandt said.
“Companies of all sizes have had to just try to adapt as best they can.”
The economics of robotic employees
From inventory to checkout, the latest advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been put to work throughout most of the retail ecosystem already.
And their presence is expected to grow: By 2025, more than 150,000 mobile robots could be deployed in brick-and-mortar establishments, according to
a report from ABI Research, based in Oyster Bay, N.Y. By the same year, more than 4 million robots could be installed in 50,000 warehouses.
But tech systems working in retail are still vulnerable to the whim of shoppers and the industry, Mr. Brandt said.
Because those systems are expensive to maintain and operate, the technology has to have a high return on investment —- the money that a company will make back by funneling dollars to the tech in the first place. And the return on investment is dictated largely by speed, accuracy and safety.
“Just about everything in the retail world — whether it’s out front with customers or in the back office in the warehouse — for the most part, it’s all about productivity,” Mr. Brandt said. “Call it productivity, call it money, call it saving money.”
In Bossa Nova’s case, the robots not only straighten up shelves, but they also keep track of which products are out of stock so customers don’t have to walk away empty-handed. The tech can keep records of what products sell and what ones don’t, so stores can make informed decisions about what inventoryto buy.
The data that the robots can provide is often more valuable than the software or the hardware, Mr. Brandt said.
“[Retailers] don’t care about the robot themselves,” he said. “What they care about is: Are they getting the data they need to then do what they want to do for their own business?
“What they’re actually selling is: Can it gather the data its customers find valuable, and can they do it with an acceptable cost, with an acceptable speed?”
Of course, systems that companies deploy to fix what they see as a problem don’t always work well — or do the job they are
intended to do.
“On the one hand, technology’s amazing, and the abundance of data and sending in artificial intelligence is truly amazing, and so we could look at it as a way that empowers people to do their jobs better,” said Jodi Forlizzi, the Geschke director and a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s HumanComputer Interaction Institute.
“On the other hand, there’s many other aspects of this complicated ecology. Are workers being disempowered? Are they being asked to change their jobs? Are they being made redundant?” she said.
For instance, Ms. Forlizzi said, one company that deployed AI systems to help cleaners navigate a hotel ended up sending the workers in and out of elevators.
Without consulting the workers, the company set up the system to prioritize VIP rooms first.
That meant it sent cleaners on a maze throughout the hotel, bypassing blocks of rooms that needed attention and taking up time and energy.
“I think it’s really hard to say, ‘Yes, all tech in all forms is good,’ ” Ms. Forlizzi said.
Shorter lines, blinking robot eyes
At a GetGo convenience store in Fox Chapel, tech company Grabango, which is based in Berkeley, Calif., has made a bet on using cameras in the ceiling to speed up the checkout process and keep tabson inventory.
Rather than waiting in line to have a cashier ring up that coffee and accept payment, a customer can use what the company calls a checkout-free system that allows them to grab their items, scan a barcode and leave without ever pulling their wallet out of theirpocket.
Frictionless checkout technology could bring anywhere between $39 billion and $98 billion in value to the retail industry, according to a Google report studying AI and machine learning in the retail industry. Inventory optimization, the next highest use case according to the report, could reach $22 billion to $62 billion.
More than 30% of retailers
are testing at least one high-value use case of this type of technology, the report found. More than 70% of the retailers included have more than 20 AI and machine learning use cases in pilot.
Among the many retailers testing out the tech, Lowe’s hardware stores deployed robots in some locations to find products and answer customers’ questions. Amazon uses semi-autonomous robots in its fulfillment centers to move packages around the warehouse.
Walmartstationed autonomous floor scrubbers in some Sam’s Club locations and invested in Scan & Go systems, an app that allows customers to scan and bag items while they shop and pay directly withtheir phones.
Giant Eagle, GetGo’s parent company, introduced its own autonomous robot named Tally — complete with blinking friendly “eyes” — to keep track of inventory at some locations.
Grabango has four customerswith systems in thousands of stores, said Chief Business Officer Andrew Radlow, though he would not disclose who those customers were. Locally, the tech was installed in Fox Chapel in September.
Using a set of cameras and sensors in rails that are positioned along the ceiling, the Grabango technology tracks products as they move through the store. So, if a customer picks up a granola bar, the cameras will then follow the snack through the store. When it moves out of one machine’s line of vision, another knows to pick it up.
The cameras are built into what look like ceiling pipes or lights and are designed to match the exact color palette a store picks out, so the tech blends in to what customers are already used to seeing.
‘One idea we tried’
At Walmart stores, Bossa Nova’s robots didn’t really blend in. Shoppers saw the machines moving autonomously through the aisles, scanning products and alerting employees of anything from a misplaced product to a run on ketchup bottles or toilet paper.
Bossa Nova, which spun out of Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute in 2005, began partnering with Walmart in 2014 and rolling out robots to stores in 2017. By 2020, Walmart and Bossa Nova announced they were planning to place bots in 1,000 locations by the end of the year.
Where they were already deployed, the robots moved autonomously three times a day, according to Bossa Nova CEO and cofounder Sarjoun Skaff. The systems crossed more than 240,000 kilometers (about 150,000 miles) autonomously and captured more than 70 billion images as they scannedthe aisles.
“Together we learned a lot about how technology can assist associates, make jobs easier and provide a better customer experience,” a Walmart spokesperson wrote in a statement about the company’s relationship with Bossa Nova.
The deal ended in part because Walmart found different, sometimes simpler, solutions for the problems the robotic systems were meant to tackle, according to a Wall Street Journal report that first reported the breakup in November. Representatives from both companies declined to give details about why the partnership ended.
“This was one idea we tried in roughly 500 stores just as we are trying other ideas in additional stores,” Walmart’s statement read. “We will continue testing new technologies and investing in our own processes and apps to best understand and track our inventory and help move products to our shelves as quickly as we can.”
Already, Walmart has announced new drone delivery pilots and a partnership with self-driving car company Cruise for grocery deliveries. The retailer has also worked with and invested in other tech companies, including DoorDash to deliver prescriptions and Ninjacart, an online grocery startup based in India.
In some warehouses, the massive retailer has also deployed robots to help pick, pack and ship orders. And it won’t stop there. Walmart plans to continue investing in technology and evaluating new systems, particularly focused on picking and delivering orders as they come in, company executives said in a recent earnings call.
Automation “will play a role in helping the store experience get better as it reduces the amount of work that associates have to do at store level, just moving freight around,” said Walmart President and CEO Douglas McMillon.
“Automation will be a big part of what we do.”