Dive Brief:

• Amazon announced Wednesday that it has developed an advanced AI model for its Just Walk Out checkout technology that makes the mobile payment system more accurate, more efficient and quicker to provide receipts to shoppers.
• The update uses the same machine learning models that underlie many generative AI applications. Instead of gathering input piece-by-piece from its cameras, shelf sensors, 3-D store model and product data — a process that resulted in lengthy processing times — the new AI model analyzes all inputs at the same time to determine exactly what shoppers are picking up, putting down and ultimately walking out with.
• Just Walk Out technology is currently available at 170 third-party locations, all of which will be getting the multi-modal system upgrade over the next month, Jon Jenkins, the vice president of Just Walk Out said in an interview.

Dive Insight:

Amazon’s latest upgrade keeps it at the cutting edge of checkout technology as it shifts its focus from powering its own stores to integrating with third-party retailers and venues like hospitals, arenas and corporate buildings.

The enhanced system streamlines the way it processes incoming data from stores. 

“It increases the accuracy of Just Walk Out technology even in complex shopping scenarios with variables such as camera obstructions, lighting conditions, and the behavior of other shoppers, while allowing us to simplify the system,” Jenkins wrote in a blog post.

The update could help make Just Walk Out a more compelling offering for retailers, which have so far been slow to adopt the pricey technology. After launching Just Walk Out in its own retail stores, including Amazon Go c-stores and Amazon Fresh grocery stores, Amazon began selling the technology to other companies. Two years ago, Just Walk Out shifted from Amazon’s retail division to its Amazon Web Services division to help facilitate those third-party sales, an Amazon spokesperson said.

But convenience and grocery companies have so far opted to focus on less expensive self-checkout kiosks instead of the advanced technology offered by Amazon and tech companies like Grabango, Zippin and Trigo.

Earlier this year, Amazon seemed to raise the white flag on promoting Just Walk Out technology’s use in grocery stores, announcing that its Amazon Fresh locations would instead move forward with the company’s proprietary smart carts, known as Dash Carts. Whole Foods Market said earlier this year that it would also pull Just Walk Out technology from its stores that had the technology. 

“If I'm going to go hang out at a large format grocery store for an hour on my weekly shopping trip, maybe something like our Dash Carts make more sense in those cases,” Jenkins said in an interview. Amazon also recently began selling its Dash Carts to other grocers.

On Tuesday, Jenkins met with reporters at Amazon’s headquarters in Seattle and led a tour of the Just Walk Out labs where the company pioneered the new multi-modal system. Scientists showed how the system can discern between products that look nearly identical, and how it can quickly and accurately recognize product selections even in tricky scenarios, like when a customer selects two packages of deli meat with one hand.

Where Just Walk Out seems to be thriving is in stadiums, airports and other venues that see long lines filled with time-pressed customers. Airport convenience operator Hudson has 16 locations with Just Walk Out, while stadiums like Seattle’s T-Mobile Park and BMO Stadium in Los Angeles also have markets using the technology.

Jenkins sees promise for the technology in locations that need 24-hour service, like hospitals and residential buildings, and in new venues that value the compact footprint that Just Walk Out-powered markets require. This year, Amazon aims to double the number of third-party stores equipped with the checkout technology, he wrote in the blog post.

“We're just sort of scratching the surface of what's going to be possible with this sort of high-level type of technology,” Jenkins said. “It's allowing us to address new types of stores and new verticals.”

Amazon is also rolling out an RFID-powered checkout system that can work in stores where customers like to browse without having to check in at a payment station before entering, like clothing stores and merchandise shops. So far, Amazon has RFID-powered merch shops in five stadiums, including Seattle’s Lumen Field, Florida’s Hard Rock Stadium and Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City.

As the Just Walk Out system processes more consumer behavior, it will learn and become even more accurate and efficient, Jenkins said. Retailers will be able to install fewer hardware fixtures, which will drive down costs further. Improving the return on investment for retailers, he said, is one of the top priorities for Just Walk Out: “It's definitely our goal to drive costs down so that we can expand the market.”