Reuters/HENRY NICHOLLS
- Amazon has spent years promoting its AI-based checkout-free Just Walk Out technology.
- But a new report suggests that most Just Walk Out sales are reviewed by real people in India.
- Amazon is rolling back Just Walk Out at Amazon Fresh stores, shifting instead to smart shopping carts.
Amazon's Just Walk Out technology had a secret ingredient: Roughly 1,000 workers in India who review what you pick up, set down, and walk out of its stores with.
The company touted the technology, which allowed customers to bypass traditional checkouts, as an achievement powered entirely by computer vision. But Just Walk Out was still very reliant on humans, The Information reported on Tuesday, citing an unnamed person who has worked on Just Walk Out technology.
About 700 of every 1,000 Just Walk Out sales had to be reviewed by Amazon's team in India in 2022, according to The Information. Internally, Amazon wanted just 50 out of every 1,000 sales to get a manual check, according to the report.
An Amazon spokesperson disputed that claim in a statement to Business Insider, saying that the team in India mostly helps train the model that the company used for Just Walk Out.
"Associates may also validate a small minority of shopping visits where our computer vision technology cannot determine with complete confidence an individual's purchases," the spokesperson said.
The revelation comes as Amazon is planning to replace Just Walk Out at Amazon Fresh stores with its Dash Carts, The Information reported. The smart shopping carts also allow customers to avoid waiting in a checkout line, though they have to place their purchases in the cart, which keeps track of their selections and debits their accounts.
While customers used Just Walk Out at Amazon Fresh stores, "they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved while shopping throughout the store" — all options that the company's Dash Cart provides, the company spokesperson said of the change.
Just Walk Out first appeared in Amazon Go convenience stores. The technology allowed customers to enter a store by identifying themselves with their Amazon account. From there, they could pick up items, put them back on the shelves, and walk out with their final picks, all without having to interact with a cashier.
In the last few years, Amazon has rolled Just Walk Out to larger-format stores. Twenty-seven of the 44 Amazon Fresh stores currently have the tech. Amazon also added Just Walk Out to some Whole Foods stores.
Startups have also created their own versions of Just Walk Out and tested them at retailers including Aldi and Dollar General.
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