Speaking to the publication, Shana Pilewski spoke about her perspective as a boss at machine learning and digital marketing company Dynamic Yield. According to Pilewski, statistics from Loup Ventures estimate cashier-less checkout will be a $50 billion market in the US, making it a strong move from both companies.
The Future is Still Uncertain
Unfortunately, as Pilewski admits, we have no solid evidence of how Microsoft’s solution would work. It’s likely it would utilize the mobile phone in some way, taking advantage of location and other sensors. It would greatly increase convenience for those whose jobs won’t be displaced. However, from a marketing perspective, it could also be a holy grail. By collecting data of everything a user purchases at specific times and locations, companies could refine the promotion and shopping experience further. Combine this with data from other sources and systems may be able to suggest relevant nearby items to users or ones users have forgotten. The result, says Pilewski, is a future that could look very different. It’s a vision that entirely contradicts the beliefs of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Just a few months ago, he said that robots and AI will assist humans rather than replace them. In a world where mobile phones can do the job of multiple employees more efficiently, that’s looking increasingly unlikely. You can view the full interview on ZDNet.
