Walmart Introduces Artificial Intelligence At NY Location To Improve Employee, Shopper Experience

Retail giant Walmart is continuing to add more machines to its stores. The company is opening its Intelligent Retail Lab on Thursday in a 50,000-square-foot Neighborhood Market grocery store in Levittown in Long Island, New York.

For the time being, the added technology is being implemented to help employees work more efficiently and help customers further enjoy their shopping experience.

According to the Associated Press, the location includes thousands of cameras suspended from the ceiling, sensors on shelves, and even cameras that can notify employees when there are spills in an aisle or when lines are getting too long and more cash registers need to be made available. This way workers can clean up at a faster rate and fix other issues that they may not have caught as quickly.

“We really like to think of this store as an artificial intelligence factory, a place where we are building these products, experiences, where we are testing and learning,” said Mike Hanrahan, CEO of Walmart’s Intelligent Retail Lab and co-founder of Jet.com, purchased by Walmart three years ago.

Walmart has also added educational kiosks throughout the store. And while having so many cameras may raise concerns about privacy, Hanrahan makes it clear that they are not equipped to recognize faces, ethnicity, or the movement of shoppers.