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Tag: AI

  • AI solutions help reduce traffic accidents

    AI solutions help reduce traffic accidents

    VinAI’s Driver Technology Software provides drivers with a 360-degree view of all surroundings, including blind spots, to help avoid traffic accidents.

    At the recent 2023 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas (U.S.), VinAI showcased two smart driving features – Automatic Mirror Adjustment (AMA) and Jelly View, a 360-degree view mode. AMA is the world’s first auto mirror adjustment feature, according to a VinAI announcement.

    These are the two newest features of the Driver and Occupants Monitoring System (DMS/OMS) and Advanced Surround View Monitoring (SVM). Both are in-vehicle solution suites that apply AI to reduce traffic accidents and improve the driving experience.

    VinAI applies infrared cameras, vehicle sensors, and facial expression analysis technology (ranked 6th in the world), which detect the driver’s condition, such as drowsiness or fatigue, and also monitors for risky behaviors, including being distracted or using a phone. As soon as the system detects such issues, the DMS issues different levels of warnings throughout the journey, even when the driver is wearing sunglasses or a mask.DMS is compatible with various hardware platforms, enabling carmakers to easily integrate it into their existing systems without spending too much on transformation.

    The Automatic Mirror Adjustment (AMA) is also an outstanding feature, easily activated with just the touch of a button. AMA can automatically adjust the mirrors on both sides of the car to the perfect position, thanks to the driver’s eye position analysis.

    The system works by estimating the driver’s eye position three-dimensionally. Normally, this problem would require two or more cameras to solve, but VinAI’s advanced system can accurately predict eye position with a single infrared camera.

    The VinAI enhanced 360-degree panoramic view feature (ASVM) helps the driver keep a close eye on the outside world while driving. The driver can also adjust the view using the on-screen control panel by choosing Jelly View mode, a transparent wraparound view. With the support of Jelly View, the driver can observe the entire space surrounding the vehicle: the front, rear, behind and outside, from the trunk to the chassis.

    The system uses AI technology to collect images from four fisheye cameras as well as information from the accelerometer to construct the vehicle’s chassis view in real-time. This helps drivers observe blind spots through the rearview mirrors. From there, users can easily detect obstacles and avoid unexpected accidents on narrow roads, rough roads, or in parking lots.

    The SVM system won the VnExpress Innovation Awards 2022 and is currently being deployed in the VFe34 electric car in Vietnam. The Jelly View feature was first introduced to the public at CES 2023.

    Dr. Bui Hai Hung, General Director of VinAI Artificial Intelligence Research and Application Joint Stock Company, said the new AMA and Jelly View features had received positive reviews from professionals as well as consumers at CES 2023.

    These AI solutions can significantly reduce accidents, which are a big issue not just for Vietnam, but also for the world, including developed countries. This “life-saving” technology is highly applicable.

    VinAI has also developed various AI products in many other fields including smart cities. One such solution includes Smart Edge, an access control solution that uses facial recognition technology. Smart Edge is currently deployed to more than 50,000 people at Vinpearl resorts, Vinhomes Ocean Park, Vinhomes Smart City, and Vinhomes Grand Park. The feature has proven to be over 99% accurate.

    Just three years since its establishment, VinAI has registered 66 patents in Vietnam and the U.S. and has published 107 research papers at the world’s leading AI conferences.

    VinAI was the only Vietnamese company ranked by Thundermark Capital as one of last year’s top 20 leading global AI research companies.

    VinAI’s cutting-edge machine learning-based technology aims to address global needs in various industries, with a focus on automobiles and smart cities.

    VinAI’s cutting-edge machine learning-based technology aims to address global needs in various industries, with a focus on automobiles and smart cities.

    VinAI’s cutting-edge driving technologies, including AMA and Jelly View, were showcased at CES 2023 from January 5 to January 8, offering guests the opportunity to experience these features first-hand in two electric cars, VinFast’s VF8 and VF9. The vehicles were installed with the full set of driver monitoring systems and 360-degree panoramic view systems.

  • AI chatbot predicted to replace Google in a couple of years

    AI chatbot predicted to replace Google in a couple of years

    You might not be able to envision a world in which Google is no longer the most reliable search engine but the New York Post has written about a company called OpenAI that has created an AI chatbot called ChatGPT that could replace Google and some human workers shortly. With over 1 million users after launching a week ago, ChatGPT can write computer code, create complex essays, decorate your home, come up with a winning marketing idea, and more.
    To understand how impressive ChatGPT is, consider this. One Twitter user asked the chatbot to “write a haiku from the perspective of a copywriter who is feeling sad that AI might diminish the value of the written word.” The response was brilliant. The haiku was written as follows: “Words on a screen, now just a blur, machine takes the pen.
    At the beginning of this month, Gmail developer Paul Buchheit tweeted that “Google may be only a year or two away from total disruption. AI will eliminate the search engine result page, which is where they make most of their money.” He added that AI will do to internet search what Google did to the Yellow Pages. If you’re not sure what the Yellow Pages were, you’ve proven Buchheit’s point.
    Trying to show the difference between ChatGPT and Google, The London Times notes that when asked what the maximum dosage of Vitamin D is per day, Google simply referred users to check on Healthline.com. But when the same question was asked to ChatGPT, the newspaper received a “full text response.”

    Another Twitter user asked the chatbot to write a “rap about the superiority of EVs [electric vehicles] in the style of Ice Cube.” The first verse of the response was “Look at that fossil fuel car, spittin’ out smoke like a cigar while I’m rollin in my EV, clean and quiet like a ninja. No need for gas, no more trips to the pump. I save some cash and help the planet out with a jump.”
    There are some downsides to ChatGPT. Bleeping Computer.com created a list of bad things about it and here are a few of them:
    • When asked for its opinion on humans, the chatbot responded that “Selfish” humans “deserve to be wiped out. Uh oh. Have you ever seen Westworld the movie?
    • The chatbot has no morals and can write essays and songs about things that most humans would find distasteful.
    • It can write emails for phishing without typos. Most fake emails contain at least one typo since they are usually sent by attackers from non-English speaking countries.
    • ChatGPT can write software, but it can also create malware. This is a major problem.
    • It has created content that is racist and sexist. Another big issue.
    • Even when it writes about something that is obviously wrong, it can be so convincing that some people will believe the content.
    To use ChatGPT, you need to have an account with OpenAI. You can sign up by clicking on this link. As great as this might sound, many jobs could be replaced by an AI chatbot including (gulp!) writing jobs. Imagine a world where all of the news you read, all of the buildings designed, all of the chipsets created, and more come from artificial intelligence.
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  • AI Spending Grew 20.7% in 2021

    AI Spending Grew 20.7% in 2021

    Worldwide revenues for the Artificial Intelligence (AI) market, including software, hardware, and services for both AI-centric and AI non-centric applications, totaled $383.3 billion in 2021, an increase of 20.7% over the prior year, according to an International Data Corporation (IDC) Worldwide Semiannual Artificial Intelligence Tracker. IDC expects the AI market value will reach nearly $450 billion in 2022 and maintain a year-over-year growth rate in the high teens throughout the five-year forecast.

    “Across all industries and functions, end-user organizations are discovering the benefits of AI technologies, as increasingly powerful AI solutions are enabling better decision-making and higher productivity,” said Rasmus Andsbjerg, associate vice president, Data & Analytics at IDC. “The reality is, AI offers solutions to everything we are facing at the moment. AI can be a source for fast-tracking digital transformation journeys, enable cost savings in times of staggering inflation rates and support automation efforts in times of labor shortages.”

    AI software again accounted for the largest share of the overall AI market in 2021. Combined, the four AI software categories – AI application delivery & deployment, AI applications, AI system infrastructure software and Artificial Intelligence platforms – delivered more than $340 billion in market value in 2021, with AI applications representing nearly half the total. Artificial Intelligence platforms delivered the strongest year-over-year growth at 36.6%, albeit from a smaller baseline.

    Within the AI applications category, AI customer relationship management (CRM) applications and AI enterprise resource management (ERM) applications each delivered about 16% of the category total. The remainder was delivered by the myriad of other AI applications available in the market. With nearly 300 companies vying for opportunities to gain share, the AI applications market remains highly competitive.

    IDC’s AI tracker also shows that AI-centric applications, in which AI technologies are central and critical to the function of the application, continued to slowly grow their share of the AI software market. In 2021, AI-centric applications captured 12.9% of the market, up 29.3% year over year. The remainder of the market was held by AI non-centric applications, where AI technologies are integral to certain workflows of the application, but if those technologies were removed, the application would still be able to function.

    Similarly, the deployment of AI software to the cloud continues to show steady growth. In 2021, 47.3% of AI software purchases were deployed to the public cloud, an increase of 4% over 2020 and 8.4% over 2019. IDC expects cloud deployment of newly purchased AI software to surpass on-premises deployments in 2022.

    The AI services market saw its total value increase 22.4% year over year to $24 billion in 2021. Client demand for expertise in developing production-grade AI solutions helped the AI IT services category grow 21.9% year over year to $18.8 billion. The AI business services category grew 24.2% year over year as organizations sought assistance on AI governance, business processes and talent strategies.

    AI hardware was both the smallest ($18.8 billion) and fastest growing (38.9% year-over-year growth) segment of the AI market. The hardware growth was driven by efforts to build dedicated AI systems capable of meeting the increased compute and storage demands of AI models and data sets. While both AI servers and AI storage delivered strong growth in 2021 – 39.1% and 32.9%, respectively – server purchases were notably larger at $15.6 billion.

  • AirAsia India becomes the first airline in India to use the revolutionary AI-powered CAE Rise Training System

    AirAsia India becomes the first airline in India to use the revolutionary AI-powered CAE Rise Training System

    AirAsia India and CAE have announced their collaboration to integrate the CAE Rise Training System into the airline’s simulator training program. AirAsia India is the first airline in India to adopt a data-driven training program using CAE Rise™.

    CAE Rise leverages analytics to deliver a higher quality of training, providing real-time data during training sessions while giving instructors insights that enable them to assess a pilot’s technical competencies and performance objectively. As long-time collaborators, AirAsia and CAE have worked together since 2014 on pilot training at CAE network training centers.

    “This collaboration uniquely incorporates CAE’s distinct features, which enable a more robust data-driven training program for our pilots,” said Capt. Manish Uppal, Head of Operations, AirAsia India. “At AirAsia India, we continue to be at the forefront of integrating technology and ensuring that safety is paramount in every aspect of our training and operations.”

    “With Indian regulator DGCA aiming to make Evidence-Based Training (EBT) implementation mandatory, CAE Rise will be a key tool in collecting data to support a smooth EBT implementation and practice,” said Capt. Arun Nair, Chief Pilot Training & Standard, AirAsia India.

    “We are thrilled that AirAsia India will leverage the benefits of CAE Rise™ for their pilot training,” said Nick Leontidis, CAE’s Group President, Civil Aviation. “With CAE Rise™, AirAsia India is investing in the development of their pilots and the safety of their passengers.”

    Launched in 2018, the CAE Rise training system is a technological innovation that enables the translation of simulator training data into valuable insights for instructors and training managers. This new training system compares independent sources to provide increased confidence in grading data quality. In addition to monitoring SOP compliance, CAE Rise augments each instructor’s capability to identify pilot proficiency gaps and evolve training programs to the most advanced aviation safety standards including AQP, ATQP, and EBT methodologies.

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  • Stop Making “Personalized” Content that Still Feels Generic

    Stop Making “Personalized” Content that Still Feels Generic

    Personalization – you’re doing it wrong.

    There are only a handful of trends or innovations in the world of loyalty marketing that can cause as much global stir as personalization does. And even though most companies have a pretty common understanding of what it is – an act of tailoring an experience or communication to your clients’ needs and preferences, that is – many of them still have troubles with implementing it correctly. The big question is: why?

    Presumably, the biggest reason for that is – personalization is hard; especially, when you have thousands of clients in your database. For real, how are you supposed to address each and every one of them while also paying attention to what they buy, watch, read (or whom they follow on Instagram)? Exactly.

    And so, hundreds of companies decide to lower the bar and opt for sending their clients “personalized” messages, which usually include a Hi-[name]-type greeting, and some bits of information regarding their activity (“Is it summer already? You’ve bought 10 bottles of anti-sweat lotion this month!”) – the rest remains the same for all.

    But is that personalization, really? To say it’s selective would be an overstatement. Anyone can notice that those are but cosmetics changes made to help create an impression that a given message is personalized. Some people fall for that, sure, but most clients – the ones that have seen hundreds of newsletters and special-offer signs in their lives – can tell it’s not real personalization (and so would you if you were in their shoes). That’s because the e-mails and notifications they receive don’t correspond with their needs and personal interests.

    Does that mean that personalization, as it is discussed and promoted by today’s marketers, is impossible to pull off? Nothing could be further from the truth. Think about it – do you actually believe that, with all the technology available to us, we cannot provide each customer with content they can relate to?

    We can, but it requires the right IT tools and… data. This is where modern loyalty management platforms enter the conversation.

    How well do you know your customers?

    Let’s start with the obvious – if you have a loyalty program, you are sitting on a gold mine right now. Why? Because you’re literally drowning in data concerning your customers. Not only can it tell you what, when, and how they usually buy, but it can also reveal what their hobbies, passions, interests, needs, and preferences are; how they perceive the world around them.

    Of course, with the amount of data we’re dealing with here, it is impossible for a human mind to process all of that information and produce findings that could help you improve your communication with your customers. For that, you must use an artificial one.

    In other words, what you need in this scenario is a modern AI-powered loyalty management system that can analyze insane amounts of customer data, identifying trends, interests, needs, and dreams within your clients’ shopping and loyalty program behavior in the process. Not only will a loyalty marketing platform (like the one that Comarch provides, for example) allow you to learn what your customers’ preferences are, but it will also help you craft the right message and send it over the right communication channel at the right time and place.

    How? Well, have you heard about customer segmentation? If you have, then you must know that AI-driven loyalty marketing platforms are now being designed to help you divide clients from your database into groups based not only on demographics but also on their hobbies and preferences. What it means is that the system can suggest creating specific messages for dedicated groups of individuals who feel the same way about particular products and how they want to be approached by a given brand. Because of its power, the system can identify thousands of such customer groups (or clusters, as we tend to call them) and help you automate your communication processes to make sure no client is left unsatisfied. Now, that’s an innovation.

    The important thing is that with AI, you can stop trying to create meaningful content and actually start creating it. Establishing strong customer relationships no longer feels like a job based on a gut feeling. Instead, you know exactly what you’re supposed to do – be genuine.

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  • SK Telecom to Help Upgrade Palau’s Communication Infrastructure

    SK Telecom to Help Upgrade Palau’s Communication Infrastructure

    SK Telecom (SKT) announced that its Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho and CEO Ryu Young-sang met with Surangel Whipps. Jr., the president of the Republic of Palau, to discuss cooperation to upgrade Palau’s communication infrastructure.

    SK Telecom also asked the Palauan government to support Busan’s bid to host the “World Expo 2030”.

    At the meeting, Vice Chairman Park Jung-ho said, “The World Expo 2030 Busan highlights the seriousness of the global climate change and the need for each country to take an active response. It will also serve as a great opportunity for Palau to experience Korea’s innovative technologies and methodologies to respond to climate change.”

    SKT CEO Ryu Young-sang also suggested cooperation with the Palauan government to upgrade Palau’s current 4G LTE infrastructure to 5G. “Based on SKT’s technologies and experience accumulated through the world’s first commercialization of 5G, we can work together to build 5G infrastructure in Palau,” said      Ryu Young-sang.

    According to SK’s press release, President Whipps showed great interest in SKT’s formidable 5G infrastructure built across Korea as well as other advanced technologies including AI, metaverse, IoT and cloud services. There was also discussion about renewable energy, another industry that SKT has much experience in.

    Meanwhile, in June this year, SKT has become the first Korean mobile operator to provide LTE roaming service to customers traveling to Palau, a popular tourist destination for Koreans.

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  • Elon Musk Says Tesla AI Day Pushed To September 30

    Elon Musk Says Tesla AI Day Pushed To September 30

    “Tesla AI Day pushed to Sept 30, as we may have an Optimus prototype working by then,” he wrote on Twitter, almost two weeks after he announced the date of Aug. 19.

    Optimus is a humanoid robot that Tesla is working on priority. Musk has previously said that it could be launched next year.

    “Optimus could eventually address global shortages of labor, and in the short term might be able to carry items around a factory,” Musk had said in January.

    This is Tesla’s second AI (artifical intelligence) Day, the first happened on Aug. 19, 2021.

    Musk, in one of his tweets in May, also said that the purpose of the AI day is to convince great AI/software/chip talent to join Tesla.

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  • Zurich Buys Estonian AI Chat Start-Up

    Zurich Buys Estonian AI Chat Start-Up

    The Swiss insurer is buying an Estonian start-up for conversational artificial intelligence. The move is a bid to improve the digital capabilities of its customer services.

    The Zurich-based insurer it is buying Alphachat, a four-year-old Tallinn-based company with a messaging automation product that understands natural language, authenticates users, and provides personalized responses, it said in a statement on Thursday. Zurich didn’t disclose the financial details of the deal.

    The insurer said it wants to use Alphachat’s conversational artificial intelligence to try and meet increasing demand from customers for personalized products and services, 24/7. Alphachat represents a considerable reinforcement of Zurich’s AI capabilities.

    The start-ups’ CEO, Indrek Vainu, said Zurich will launch a hub for intelligent automation in Estonia in order to create AI-powered messaging automation solutions for its customers.

  • Gap buys AI tech business

    Gap buys AI tech business

    Gap is investing on AI and machine learning technology through the acquisition with the New York and Tel Aviv-based start-up Context-Based 4 (CB4).

    CB4’s technology has been implemented by several fashion retailers, including Levi’s, Urban Outfitters, Lidl, and Kum & Go. Gap says the acquisition will help it transform its retail operations and improve the customer experience by enhancing predictive analytics and demand sensing.

    “We believe artificial intelligence and machine learning will shape the future of our industry,” said Sally Gilligan, chief growth transformation officer and head of the strategic growth office at Gap.

    “We understand the impact and the wide applications their science can have across sales, inventory and consumer insights, as well as its potential to unlock value and enhance the customer experience.”

    Since moving to the cloud last year, Gap has increased its investments in technology to enable growth and innovation that can impact its entire portfolio of brands. The value of the CB4 deal has not yet been disclosed.

    Before acquiring CB4, Gap bought e-commerce startup Drapr, which powers 3D-fit technology and virtual fitting rooms to reduce returns of online sales. Its strategic growth office also participated in the latest funding round for Obe Fitness, a digital fitness platform that partners with Gap’s Athleta Brand to bring entertainment, pop culture and design to fitness.

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  • DBS Announces More Tech Job Openings

    DBS Announces More Tech Job Openings

    DBS continues to add tech talent with plans to hire around 150 related positions via a virtual hackathon.

    DBS will hire for around 150 technology positions through a virtual hackathon, Hack2Hire, an annual program in its fourth edition, according to a statement.

    The positions will be for 14 developer and engineering roles across artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and blockchain technologies.

    Successful candidates from the hackathon will be invited for a final interview during the event.

    The latest expansion follows 140 job openings previously announced in May during the bank’s female-focused virtual career fair.

    With Covid-19 greatly accelerating the pace of digital adoption, it is now more important than ever to ensure that our digital offerings continue to stay ahead of our customers’ needs, said DBS’ group head of big data/AI and consumer banking technology Soh Siew Choo.

  • UBS Takes Stake in AI Advisor Platform

    UBS Takes Stake in AI Advisor Platform

    UBS is taking a stake in an artificial intelligence platform that matches institutional clients with investment experts.

    UBS has invested $5 million in Lynk in its latest funding round, taking the technology company’s total funding to $35 million, Lynk said in a press release Wednesday. Lynk says it has a network of more than 840,000 global experts. Its proprietary technology is driven by an AI data engine that indexes individuals based on their experience and expertise to match users with subject matter experts on its platform.

    Lynk was founded by Peggy Choi in 2015. The firm has eight offices, including New York, Hong Kong, Singapore, Mumbai, Shanghai and Toronto.

    UBS announced a global alliance with Lynk in May for its institutional investor clients and subscribed to the platform in 2020. The collaboration is run via UBS Investment Bank’s principal investment team.

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  • Nokia trials AI technology in Melbourne to keep streets clean and safe

    Nokia trials AI technology in Melbourne to keep streets clean and safe

    Nokia the City of Melbourne have conducted a trial using Nokia Scene Analytics artificial intelligence (AI) technology to develop a deeper understanding of waste disposal behaviour. This will allow the city to tackle the issue of waste dumping more efficiently keep laneways – the busy and narrow city streets and pedestrian areas – even more clean, safe and free of garbage.

    To decrease the frequency of waste contractor visits to busy areas, the City of Melbourne has offered local residents and businesses subscription-based access to the large-capacity compactor facilities. With the compactor in place, Council then wanted to understand how the service was being utilised and how to mitigate illegal waste dumping, which can quickly create safety and hygiene issues in the area.

    Under its ‘emerging technology testbed’ initiative, the City of Melbourne worked with Nokia to leverage an existing network of installed cameras as internet of things (IoT) sensors to monitor one of the compactors. The Nokia Scene Analytics solution employed an AI-powered algorithm to filter and collate data from the cameras, while also combining other data sources, such as operational data on the compactor itself, to create real-time alerts and produce reports. Initial trial results demonstrate that Scene Analytics can support the City’s objectives for better, safer citizen experiences while simultaneously lowering maintenance and down time costs for waste management services.

    This innovative use of Scene Analytics has been recognized on a national stage as the partnership between Nokia and the City of Melbourne was shortlisted for the Communications Alliance’s ACOMMS awards in the Artificial Intelligence category.

    Lord Mayor Sally Capp, City of Melbourne, said:“This is a great example of using new technology to help remove illegal waste more quickly, make our city cleaner and protect the environment. Our partnership with Nokia is another way we are gathering data to make Melbourne a safer, smarter and more sustainable city. This innovative project will help to avoid hazards and make our streets even cleaner by allowing our waste services to better understand behavior trends related to the illegal and dangerous dumping of waste.”

    Rob Mccabe, Head of Enterprise of Australia and New Zealand,Nokia,said: “The City of Melbourne is using robust AI technology to offer its citizens, visitors and businesses a greener and more liveable community. In helping the City of Melbourne monitor and enhance services with real-time driven actions, Nokia Scene Analytics is supporting the safety, security and operational continuity of this city in a proactive and automated way.”

  • FedEx To Test Package Deliveries With Self-Driving Startup Nuro

    FedEx To Test Package Deliveries With Self-Driving Startup Nuro

    FedEx Corp and robotics company Nuro on Tuesday announced a multi-year agreement to test self-driving vehicles in the package delivery company’s network, starting with a pilot program in Houston. The partnership comes as parcel companies race to reduce the cost of last-mile delivery, which surged during the pandemic. The companies will target delivery scenarios where Nuro’s low-speed, unmanned vehicle can provide “the biggest bang for your buck,” Cosimo Leipold, Nuro’s head of partnerships, told Reuters in an interview.

    That will likely include inefficient tasks like late-night pickups in out-of-the-way places, said Rebecca Yeung, FedEx vice president for advanced technology and innovation. “Instead of dispatching a driver to get those packages, a device like Nuro could be super helpful,” said Yeung, who called the FedEx/Nuro tie-up a “very serious, long-term commitment” that aims to reduce headaches, not human drivers.

    Nuro vehicles are already making deliveries for U.S. supermarket operator Kroger Co and Domino’s Pizza Inc in the Houston area. Nuro continues to test its technology in Arizona. Nuro, whose R2 unit has space for delivery cargo but not a human driver, said last year it has raised $500 million. In a separate project, FedEx is using DEKA Research & Development Corp’s smaller robot, dubbed “Roxo,” for on-demand, same-day deliveries in Plano, Texas.

    Nuro vehicles are already making deliveries for U.S. supermarket operator Kroger Co and Domino’s Pizza Inc in the Houston area.

    Rival United Parcel Service Inc is centering its unmanned delivery efforts on drones. UPS has ordered electric delivery vans from British startup Arrival. Those vehicles are fitted with sensors and cameras that should gradually enable autonomous features, but will still require a human driver.

    Transporting people via self-driving taxis is proving more difficult and expensive than delivering packages and food. As a result, freight and logistics companies are exploring ways to roll out the technology on predictable and simple routes, including on highways.

  • Singaporean retailer opens three AI-powered unmanned grocery stores

    Singaporean retailer opens three AI-powered unmanned grocery stores

    Cheers, a sub-brand of Singapore’s largest Convenience store chain FairPrice recently launched an AI-powered cashierless store with Cloudpick. This is not the first unmanned convenience store opened by Cheers. The company piloted its first “unattended” store in Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in 2017, followed by two more at the National University of Singapore.

    Unlike the first three stores, the new unmanned and cashless store is equipped with Cloudpick,the world’s leading AI digital retail technology solution provider, replacing self-checkout counters and creating a completely frictionless shopping experience powered by its patented AI system and computer vision technology.

    Cashierless checkouts have been evolving for years. With the ongoing global pandemic, retailers are seeking new ways to enhance the shopping experience, including reducing in-store human-to-human contact by eliminating the checkout lines.

    Cloudpick has empowered many retail chains in more than 11 countries around the world, and has landed more than 130 AI-powered cashierless stores. Other players providing computer vision checkout solutions such as Aifi, Zippin and Standard Cognition, which announced recently that it has raised $150 million in Series C funding led by Japan Softbank.

    The grab-and-go Cheers store sells a variety of drinks, prepackaged food and snacks. When entering the Cheers store for the first time, the customers can download the Cheers SG app and add their payment method. They can use facial recognition or scan the QR code from App to enter the store. The customers then can just walk in, grab any items they want and simply walk out. The AI system track which products customers pick up and return; virtual baskets are updated accordingly by the algorithms, and customers’ digital accounts are automatically charged after exiting the stores. Consumers can quickly purchase their favored products even during peak hours.

    In addition to ‘fast billing speed’, the store can also enrich the customer’s shopping experience through smart bar screens in the store, this is also the first of its kind in the world. The smart bar screens can be used to effectively communicating with customers, such as displaying product information, suggestions, invoking coupons, and even playing competing advert campaigns if brands are willing to do so. The AI system is accurately identifies the audience standing in front of the screen, and play only the advert that is relevant and most efficient in creating conversion and facilitate customers’ decision-making process.

    On the other hand, Cheers cashier-less convenience store has gotten rid of its high dependence on human resources. The automated cashier-free solution allows store operator to save on labor costs and allow 24/7 store operations, it removes the repetitive and tedious checkout work and provides more in-person services for customers. Meanwhile, the Cloudpick AI system completely digitizing ‘people, product and place’, it makes the operations and management process easier and more effective.

    For instance, no more store inspection is needed for store operators, they will be notified in real-time when a product needs restocking. The real-time inventory check function allows the clerk to replenish products without spending countless times counting each of the items and verify the inventory. In terms of product selection, the business intelligent reports enable operating personnel to accurately grasp the most popular brands and product categories to make the best product selection decision, thus increasing sales based on improving customer satisfaction.

    Mr.Seah Kian Peng, CEO of FairPrice Group mentioned, once the AI system adopted by Cheers autonomous convenience store is proven successful, the system may be rolled out to more sub-branches in the future.

    With Cloudpick’s advanced technology and experience, the company will help FairPrice stores to break through manpower constraints, and through digital transformation, comprehensively enhance the customer shopping experience.

  • ZTE launches i5GC to support private 5G networks for vertical industries

    ZTE launches i5GC to support private 5G networks for vertical industries

    The solution introduces 5G capabilities such as large bandwidth, low latency, high reliability and multiple connections into various industries, and integrates technologies such as AI, IoT, cloud computing, big data and MEC to enable the digitalisation of whole industries and build fully-connected intelligent private 5G networks for vertical industries.

    At present, public 5GC is oriented to consumer applications, so it cannot meet industry users’ ultra-high requirements for security, latency, reliability, network control rights, energy consumption and usage environment. ZTE i5GC addresses this by deeply integrating and optimising 5GC functions. It uses 2U general servers to achieve the integration of multiple network functions (NF) and a plug-and-play one-stop deployment mode to achieve minimal space, minimal energy consumption and minimal operation and maintenance (O&M).

    This solution provides non-professional industry users with rapid and accurate 5G network access deployment and excellent service experience. In addition, ZTE i5GC can be flexibly customised according to a user’s diversified requirements for security, traffic processing and autonomy, and provide different function combinations and deployment forms for different scenarios. For instance, the user plane function (UPF) is deployed to the edge, traffic is forwarded nearby, and user data is locally managed. In addition, ZTE i5GC employs a 3GPP service-based architecture (SBA) to seamlessly interconnect with a 5G public network. It can integrate third-party multi-access edge-computing (MEC) applications through open interfaces to achieve flexible expansion and rapid iteration of edge applications, so as to explore and breed 5G killer applications in the vertical field.

    Towards the construction of business-grade 5G networks, ZTE has implemented in-depth 5G applications for use in vertical fields such as mines, medical treatments and ports. For example, for a 5G smart mine project, ZTE uses i5GC to deploy a complete set of 5G networks underground, meeting the mine’s compact space and explosion-proofing requirements, and achieving full coverage from key 5G networks. ZTE i5GC will continue to focus on industry projects, promote the understanding of industry requirements, work with enterprises and operators to build a 5G application ecosystem, help expand the ‘blue ocean market’ opportunity for 5G for business, and drive 5G large-scale commercial use and value monetisation.

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