A supermarket has been praised for standing up to artificial intelligence by removing almost all of their self-service checkouts in favor of human cashiers.
Booths, a supermarket chain with 27 locations across the UK, has made the decision to axe its self-service counters and hire more staff to handle checkouts.
Speaking out about the brave decision, managing director Nigel Murray said customers want to “speak to a real human” as he branded the self-checkout machine as “slow, unreliable, and impersonal.”
The chain also insisted that they will go for “actual intelligence” rather than artificial intelligence as they ensured that “high levels of warm, personal care” will be provided at their stores.
“Our customers have told us this over time, that the self-scan machines that we’ve got in our stores they can be slow, they can be unreliable, they’re obviously impersonal,” Murray said in an interview with BBC Radio Lancashire.
“We stock quite a lot of loose items – fruit and veg and bakery – and as soon as you go to a self-scan with those you’ve got to get a visual verification on them, and some customers don’t know one different apple versus another for example.”
As experts in the industry explained, the move could also help prevent the notable rise in theft that takes place at self-service checkouts.
“We are a business that prides ourselves on the high standards and high levels of warm, personal care,” Murray added.
“We like to talk to people and we’re really proud that we’re moving largely to a place where our customers are served by people, by human beings, so rather than artificial intelligence, we’re going for actual intelligence.”
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