How AI works: Simply put, AI and machine learning work by finding patterns in data. The larger the pool of data, the more observable the patterns and the better the accuracy and outcomes of the machine learning process. Amazon, for example, not only uses AI broadly in its online services, it is successfully applying it in physical retail stores. Amazon operates several AI-assisted, brick and mortar convenience store called Amazon Go in major U.S. cities. Customers may pick up drinks, snacks and prepared meals. Shoppers scan an app on their smartphones when they enter the store, so that they can be properly identified as individual shoppers. Cameras throughout the store track shoppers and note which products they have selected while totaling the cost. The store runs without cashiers, utilizing electronic checkout and payment, while sensors based on AI determine which products were removed from the shelves by which customer, facilitating both checkout and restocking. There is the potential for a very large rollout of these Amazon Go stores worldwide, with a UK launch possible in the near future. Technologies refined in the Amazon Go stores may show up in stores at Amazon’s Whole Foods subsidiary, and in its specialty stores that sell books and electronics. Based on the experience of Amazon and a few other pioneers, AI will have a very significant effect on the way we shop in stores.
Introduction to the Artificial Intelligence (AI) & Machine Learning
How AI works: Simply put, AI and machine learning work by finding patterns in data. The larger the pool of data, the more observable the patterns and the better the accuracy and outcomes of the machine learning process. Amazon, for example, not only uses AI broadly in its online services, it is successfully applying it in physical retail stores. Amazon operates several AI-assisted, brick and mortar convenience store called Amazon Go in major U.S. cities. Customers may pick up drinks, snacks and prepared meals. Shoppers scan an app on their smartphones when they enter the store, so that they can be properly identified as individual shoppers. Cameras throughout the store track shoppers and note which products they have selected while totaling the cost. The store runs without cashiers, utilizing electronic checkout and payment, while sensors based on AI determine which products were removed from the shelves by which customer, facilitating both checkout and restocking. There is the potential for a very large rollout of these Amazon Go stores worldwide, with a UK launch possible in the near future. Technologies refined in the Amazon Go stores may show up in stores at Amazon’s Whole Foods subsidiary, and in its specialty stores that sell books and electronics. Based on the experience of Amazon and a few other pioneers, AI will have a very significant effect on the way we shop in stores.
