An AI bot is running a retail store. Is this the future?

A single artificial intelligence system is now making nearly every decision in a retail store—from which products to stock and price to how to arrange displays and manage inventory—raising urgent questions about whether human workers and store managers will soon become obsolete in one of America's largest employment sectors. The experiment, which is already operational and drawing attention from major retailers, suggests that the automation wave that transformed manufacturing and warehouses may finally be arriving on the sales floor, where millions of Americans still work. What remains unclear is whether the technology actually improves profits and customer experience, or whether it's simply the latest example of Silicon Valley betting on AI solutions before proving they work in the real world.

Arizona Daily Star·Jun 3