A major Japanese supermarket chain has installed an artificial intelligence (AI) system to assess its employees’ smiles, to help it gauge the service levels it offers.
In what is being called a world's first, an article in the South China Morning
Post says Aeon is to use a 'smile-gauging AI system' across its 240 shops around the
country.
Called 'Mr Smile', it was developed by the Japanese technology company InstaVR and claims to be
able to accurately rate a shop assistant’s service attitude. The system draws on more than 450
elements including facial expressions, voice volume and tone of greetings.
It has also been designed with
“game” elements that invite staff to improve their attitude by challenging their scores.
AEON said it
ran a trial of the system in eight stores with about 3,400 staff members, and found service
attitude improved by up to 1.6 times over a period of three months.
The goal of
Mr Smile is to “standardise staff members’ smiles and satisfy customers to the maximum”.
image: shutterstock/Nami Uchida