Amazon hits back at media reports that its Just Walk Out technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar

Amazon has slammed “erroneous” media reports that its Just Walk Out checkout-free stores technology relies on human reviewers watching from afar.

Said reports claimed that, though it seemed completely automated, Just Walk Out actually relied on more than 1,000 people in India watching and labelling videos to ensure accurate checkouts.

The cashiers were simply moved off-site, leaving people to be essentially spied on while they shopped.

In an online post, Amazon countered: “Most AI systems, including the underlying machine learning models behind these technologies, are continuously improved by annotating synthetic (AI generated) and real shopping data.”

“Our associates are responsible for this labeling and annotation step. Associates don’t watch live video of shoppers to generate receipts - that’s taken care of automatically by the computer vision algorithms. This is no different than any other AI system that places a high value on accuracy, where human reviewers are common.”

It concluded: “We are excited about the future of AI powered, identity and checkout solutions like Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Dash Cart, and Amazon One. The future of retail will be transformed by AI, and we are just getting started.”

Change of plan

It recently emerged that Just Walk Out is being dropped from Amazon Fresh stores.

In the aforementioned online post, Amazon observed: “Customers value Just Walk Out technology because they are usually on a “mission driven” shopping trip, making quick purchases of relatively few items, and can shop just like they would in any other store without standing in line to pay or scanning items at self-checkout.”

“In fact, the response from shoppers to Just Walk Out in small format stores has been so strong that we will launch more small format third-party Just Walk Out stores in 2024 than any year prior, more than doubling the number of third-party stores with the technology this year.”

It added that In larger grocery stores, where customers are making a big weekly trip and buy a greater number of items, people so far prefer Amazon Dash Cart, a smart shopping cart, which uses the same computer vision technology as Just Walk Out.

In these larger stores, along with skipping the line at checkout, Dash Cart serves as a shopping companion that travels through the store with a customer, helping them locate items with an on-cart screen featuring maps and navigation, and receive personalised shopping experiences, all while tracking their savings and spending in real-time.

“We have already begun expanding Dash Cart to all Amazon Fresh stores as well as third-party grocers,” Amazon said.

It continued: “We have strong conviction that Just Walk Out technology will be the future in stores that have a curated selection where customers can pop in, grab the small number of items they need, and simply walk out.”

“Even with relatively few items sold per visit, we have already sold over 18 million items in Just Walk Out stores, and there are now more than 140 third-party locations with Just Walk Out technology in the US., UK, Australia, and Canada.”

“These include travel retailers, sports stadiums, entertainment venues, conference centers, theme parks, convenience stores, hospitals, and college campuses.”

“The momentum for Just Walk Out stores will continue to grow for two reasons: Customers love the convenience, and businesses love the increased sales, reduced theft, and return on investment.”