What could possibly go wrong with this Fujitsu tech?
A Japanese supermarket has started analyzing customers’ in-store behavior and feeding it to a generative AI to drive an avatar that makes real-time suggestions about stuff you might want to buy.
The Aruk Mitajiri supermarket, in the city of Hofu, started a trial of this arrangement yesterday, wielding tech from Fujitsu that uses video cameras to detect shoppers who linger at displays, compare multiple products, bend down towards a shop display, pick up a product, or respond to in-store content.
Observations of such behaviors are used to tune prompts for a generative AI manifested as a customized “Avatar concierge” that pumps out custom sales patter and/or content.
Fujitsu expects this process will result in customers returning to the shelves, confident of what they want to purchase and happy to splash the necessary wad of Yen.
The Japanese tech giant cooked this up in conjunction with a research group led by Naoto Onzo, director of the Institute of Marketing and Communication at Japan’s Waseda University …
