Amazon’s checkout system relies on Indian workers for human review

WASHINGTON, UNITED STATES — Amazon has long touted its “Just Walk Out” technology as a revolutionary, AI-powered system that allows shoppers to bypass checkout lines. However, a new report reveals that the vaunted system relies heavily on human workers reviewing purchases.

According to an article from The Information, around 1,000 workers in India are tasked with manually verifying up to 700 out of every 1,000 Just Walk Out sales at Amazon’s stores. This is far higher than Amazon’s internal target of only needing human review for 50 out of 1,000 transactions.

“Associates may also validate a small minority of shopping visits where our computer vision technology cannot determine with complete confidence an individual’s purchases,” an Amazon spokesperson admitted.

The revelation undercuts Amazon’s claims that Just Walk Out is an entirely automated, computer vision-based system. 

Meanwhile, Amazon recently phased out Just Walk Out at some of its Amazon Fresh grocery stores in favor of smart shopping carts called “Dash Carts.” Gizmodo reported that nearly all of the engineers building Just Walk Out were laid off.

“While customers used Just Walk Out at Amazon Fresh stores, they also wanted the ability to easily find nearby products and deals, view their receipt as they shop, and know how much money they saved,” the spokesperson said of the change.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced a significant workforce reduction, impacting several hundred employees across its Sales, Marketing, Global Services organization, and Physical Stores Technology team. 

Presto Automation, a provider of AI drive-thru ordering systems, had a similar controversy. It disclosed that over 70% of customer interactions involve human agents, despite previous claims that the technology was highly autonomous.

Recent filings revealed that off-site workers in places like the Philippines are actively monitoring orders and stepping in when needed.