Walmart China is deploying a self-service fresh produce scale that makes weighing produce more efficient and faster for the shopper, according to a press release.

The company’s Omega 8 platform has completed dozens of proofs of concept since its January launch and has been introduced to many stores. According to data from 10 Walmart stores, average weighing time is being reduced by approximately 40%.

“For Walmart, innovation is in our DNA, and we are actively embracing innovation from beginning to end. Omega 8 acts as a bridge between technology companies and Walmart to jointly create technical solutions that can solve for the pain points of retail,” Ella Chan, vice president, strategy and innovation at Walmart, said in the release.

With conventional self-service scales, customers had to click through several screens to identify the correct product among hundreds of options. This can be confusing, often leading to customers needing associate assistance to complete the weighing process.

RetailAI Fresh, by Malong Technologies, is an AI-powered self-service scale solution that integrates product recognition. The technology integrates into Walmart’s already-deployed traditional self-service scales, transforming them into AI devices, according to the release. 

Customers simply place the bagged items on the scale and the system accurately identifies the product without any change to normal customer or shopping behavior. The system works on items within multiple layers of clear plastic bags or other protective materials. 

The Malong technology provides a “one-tap” ready ranked list to select on screen. In the past, there were multiple screens and taps involved, which increased friction in the shopping experience. Now, with just one click, customers have a simpler and quicker experience to print a payment label and complete the process.

Normally, an AI-based product recognition system requires data to be collected, labeled and trained in a separate process involving significant manual and high-cost effort, according to the release. In this traditional machine learning approach, store associates would have to be involved for data collection, professional annotators called upon for data labeling, and high caliber data scientists for model training. This leads to significant inefficiency because this process requires continuous updating as new products are introduced to the store. 

RetailAI Fresh by Malong offers a self-learning AI system that enables the automatic learning of new SKUs without requiring any manual human intervention and becomes smarter over time in a positive feedback loop.

Customer privacy

The solution is also designed to protect customer privacy. The camera involved points downward, only capturing the produce placed on the scale within its field of view, not the shopper. Additionally, since the system is based on self-learning, all data processing is done automatically by the system itself.

The platform also provides a way of working for participating startups and fast-tracking the top companies into Walmart’s stores.

For example, there is a 60-day PoC process deadline, which helps to keep all stakeholders focused on delivery, avoiding feature creep. The RetailAI Fresh solution is able to be delivered as a PoC well within this timeline. 

Malong is a NVIDIA Inception Premier member and leveraged NVIDIA T4 Tensor Core GPUs for AI inference in combination with the NVIDIA EGX optimized edge software stack running on Dell EMC PowerEdge servers.

“With the Omega 8 platform, we want to create an entrepreneurial atmosphere for technology companies to better understand the entire retail chain, and then help inspire more innovative ideas to accelerate retail digital transformation,” said Charlene Ma, the director of innovation (Omega 8), strategy and innovation, in the release. “With a deep understanding of retail needs, and deep integration of leading AI vision technology, Malong’s AI product recognition solution for self-service scales is a strong example of a cross-border innovation.” 

In the first wave of deployment, the Malong Technologies’ solution is being launched in 100 Walmart stores in China through Omega 8. 

Images courtesy of Walmart.