Sam’s Club Customers May Soon Encounter AI Instead of Receipt-Checkers Walking Out of Store

The walk-through machines are replacing humans

Sam's Club deploys AI at exits
The machines are replacing humans who checked customer receipts. Walmart

Walmart-owned Sam's Club is replacing humans to verify receipts at its exits with Artificial Intelligence and computer vision technology.

It says has deployed the technology in more than 120 of its bulk goods stores since unveiling it at the Consumer Electronics Show in January. That's about 20% of all of the warehouses.

The walk-through scanners are built to confirm customers have paid for all items in their shopping carts without requiring a human to physically check the cart and receipt.

The machines pair up with Sam's Club Scan and Go app, which allows shoppers ring up items as they fill up their shopping cart.

The company claims it is the largest-scale implementation of member-facing AI-powered technology in the retail industry.

Sam's Club claims the AI allows people to get out of the store about 23% quicker. It plans to deploy the new exit technology to all of its clubs by the end of 2024.

"I'm incredibly proud of the innovation and dedication of our team to deploy this member experience technology at scale," said Todd Garner, chief product officer, Sam's Club.

The company claims the AI will be constantly learning and improving as it monitors thousands of transactions.

Sam's Club rival Costco is still relying on humans to check receipts at exits but it is installing machines at the entrances to scan membership cards to confirm that club members are not sharing memberships.

Tags
Walmart, Sam's Club, Technology
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