AI-Powered Exit Technology from Sam's Club Now Available in 20% of Locations

Amazon may be reducing its use of AI-driven Just Walk Out checkout technology in favor of smart shopping carts. Meanwhile, Walmart-owned Sam's Club is embracing AI to enhance its own exit strategy. Now, customers who pay at the register or via the Scan & Go mobile app can leave the store without needing their purchases verified against receipts.

Introduced at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, this innovative technology has already been rolled out in over 120 locations across the U.S., which accounts for 20% of all Sam's Club stores. According to the retailer, this advancement has significantly expedited customer departures, with members exiting the store 23% faster. Sam's Club plans to implement this technology in all its locations by the end of the year.

The system combines computer vision and digital technology to capture images of customers' shopping carts and verify payments for the items purchased. The AI operates in the background, improving the efficiency of the exit process by learning from thousands of transactions across various clubs.

Previously, Sam's Club members had to wait in line for receipt checks at the exit. The new technology streamlines their exit experience and allows store staff to allocate time to other responsibilities.

Additionally, Sam's Club subtly addressed Amazon's recent challenges with its own technology rollout, highlighting that its system is expanding while "other retailers have struggled to deploy similar technology at scale, with some abandoning efforts." This comment indirectly references Amazon’s retreat from its Just Walk Out initiative. Furthermore, Amazon faced criticism for relying on over 1,000 human workers to review transactions, while it stated that machine learning was the backbone of its technology, with contractors only assisting in annotating data to improve the system.

In contrast, Sam's Club reports that fewer than 40 employees are involved in deploying its exit technology, covering areas such as engineering, product development, user experience, marketing, operations, and real estate.