Orevo, a convenience store, has introduced an AI-based automatic checkout system for side dishes.

In the convenience store industry, where intensifying competition has been combined with a shortage of labor, the three major companies are workingto demonstrate unmanned cash registers and review 24-hour operations. In such a situation, Ishida (Sakyo Ward, Kyoto City), a long-established weighing scale manufacturer, has teamed up with Orebo, a regional convenience store in Fukui Prefecture, to develop a new system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to save labor at the cash register. The price of the system, excluding consumption tax, is about 3 million yen. Although it is more expensive than Ishida's regular scales, it is expected to save labor in processing and cooking areas of supermarkets in addition to stores that handle side dishes, and inquiries are strong. Photo taken on November 13, 2019, credit: Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun / Kyodo News Images