AiFi now deploys two autonomous retail stores per week
Autonomous shopping, powered by AiFi, is now successfully operating in 80 retail stores worldwide. AiFi currently provides autonomous shopping via AI-powered computer vision technology to companies including: Verizon, Microsoft, Carrefour, ALDI, Compass Group, Sodexo, Choice Market and Żabka Group.
The company says it set a new industry benchmark for autonomous retail stores by improving its deployment time to two stores per week. AiFi worked with Poland’s convenience store chain, Żabka, to deploy its computer vision-powered AI platform in the span of a few months. This year, AiFi has seen significant expansion, with 60% more employees than last year. They now cover 800,000 shoppers with 2.5 million unique items worldwide.
“The biggest challenge that tech providers in our space are experiencing is scalability,” said João Diogo Falcão, chief technology officer at AiFi. “We are the only company that can deploy an autonomous store in less than a week within a vast range of venues and store formats.”
Since 2021, Microsoft has supported AiFi as part of their global program for accelerating high-potential startups. The company is now a Microsoft global independent software vendor (ISV) partner and AiFi autonomous retail stores run on Microsoft Azure. The continued collaboration between the two companies will help AiFi scale its footprint across various geographical locations and new store formats.
AiFi is also adopting mobile edge computing technology and 5G capabilities from Verizon Business to leverage a high-speed experience for shoppers. AiFi is expected to serve the rapidly growing sports and entertainment industry with its flexible AI platform and secure, high-speed connectivity.
The company offers three AI platform solution options, namely:
- Transformation of an existing retail store.
- Creation of a new hybrid or fully autonomous store.
- Deployment of a ready portable store.
Depending on a retail company’s requirements, AiFi will leverage its expertise in fast deployment and can open an autonomous store within a few days.
“AiFi has scaled its solution to top retailers worldwide, allowing them to delight customers with an enhanced in-store experience, optimize operations and deploy autonomous stores to new locations at an unprecedented pace and scale,” said Shelley Bransten, corporate vice president of Global Retail and Consumer Goods Industries at Microsoft.
Earlier this year, AiFi announced a Series B funding round of $65 million with participation from Verizon Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, HP Tech Ventures, Mithril Capital, Aldi South Group, Żabka Group, and Rewe of Germany. This brought the company’s total funding to $80 million, which will likely accelerate its growth in 2022.
Article Topics
5G | AiFi | autonomous | computer vision | edge AI | Microsoft | retail | Verizon
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