Kobe Bussan uses AI to detect out-of-stock items, opens next-generation experimental store in August

　Kobe Bussan, which operates a franchise of "Business Supermarket", will open a next-generation experimental store that utilizes AI (artificial intelligence) in August. AI is used for out-of-stock detection and recipe suggestions to improve customer satisfaction.

　The experimental store will be a directly managed store, ``Gyomu Super Tengachaya Ekimae Store'' (Nishinari-ku, Osaka, with a sales floor area of ​​approximately 879 square meters), which will open on August 26, and will introduce solutions planned and developed by Softbank and others.

　Analyze the video of the display shelf with an AI camera, automatically detect out-of-stock items, and notify store employees. It can be expected to prevent shortages and reduce the amount of work.

　Introduced a shopping cart "recommendation cart" with a tablet terminal attached. When a customer scans the barcode of a product, recommended products and recipes are displayed on the tablet based on the big data of Yahoo, a subsidiary of Softbank, and the data held by Kobe Bussan.

　When you put the product whose barcode has been read into the cart, you can display a list of the products in the cart on the tablet. You can see the total amount of shopping at a glance, and if you link it with the cash register, you can use it as a self-checkout, so you can pay without lining up at the cash register.

　In addition, AI analyzes the number of people entering the store, the number of people waiting at the cash register, the time it takes to pay, etc., and uses it to determine the number of operating cash registers and the allocation of employees. We also plan to carry out initiatives such as analysis of customer flow lines and attribute analysis of people who see digital signage.