Amazon’s 'Just Walk Out' tech was actually powered by low-paid Indian workers: report

Amazon is doing away with its Just Walk Out automatic checkouts at Amazon Fresh stores

Amazon is removing ‘Just Walk Out’ technology from its Amazon Fresh stores. The technology allowed people to enter a store, grab what they wanted and leave without checking out. Receipts were sent to the customers afterwards. Hailed as a triumph of technology and AI when it was introduced in 2018, the Just Walk Out system actually relied on manual human labour, it has now emerged.

According to a report in The Information, Amazon claimed that it used a host of cameras and sensors around the store to track what customers grabbed. However, the e-commerce giant also used hundreds of Indian workers to track customers instead of relying purely on AI and technology.

An army of over 1,000 workers, sitting in India, took on the role of remote cashiers to check what customers were leaving the store with, The Information reported. The work of cashiers was effectively outsourced to India, undercutting local jobs.

Now, after five years, Amazon has decided to do away with the Just Walk Out technology from its Amazon Fresh stores, since it was getting to be too time-consuming. The outsourced workers, sitting in India, apparently took hours to compile the data they tracked. This data was then used to generate receipts that customers would receive much later.

Amazon says the Just Walk Out tech will now be replaced by smart carts that allow customers to skip the checkout line but also see their spending in real time.

While redesigning Fresh stores in the past year, Amazon spokesperson Carly Golden said the company heard from customers who enjoy skipping the checkout line but also wanted to view their receipts and savings as they shopped. Golden said the smart carts will give customers these benefits as well as the convenience of skipping the checkout line.