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Creepy cool robots coming soon to a grocery store near you

Creepy or cool, you decide. Like it or not, robots are coming soon to a grocery store near you.
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In the Forbes article, Robots are Taking the Store at Kroger, Walmart and Whole Foods. What Could Go Wrong?, contributor Bryan Pearson writes about “how the grocery industry is stepping up its investment in shopper-facing robot technology ambitiously, and evidently with much confidence, as it strives to offset the costs of online delivery and pressure from non-supermarket competition.”

Pearson cites a study from Juniper Research outlining plans by retailers to invest an estimated $3.6 billion in artificial intelligence technology globally. Many of the plans for grocery store AI include having them work in warehouses such as Amazon, with an estimated 45,000 robots eventually working in its warehouses and distribution centers.

Kroeger, which plans to add 20 robot-automated warehouses in the U.S., will also have robots working directly with shoppers.

Robots working in Walmart will scan and sort inventory, and Giant Food Stores will feature a robot named Marty (featured in the video above) who “scopes the aisles for hazards such as spills and runs price checks.”

BTW, googly-eyed Marty is getting mixed reviews that range from creepy to cool…

Dr. Jenn Jordan (she/her) on Twitter: “Apparently my supermarket has just gotten a robot. Its name is Marty. It detects spills. Doesn’t clean them, just starts shouting if it sees one. pic.twitter.com/xnRuV8LBCU / Twitter”

Apparently my supermarket has just gotten a robot. Its name is Marty. It detects spills. Doesn’t clean them, just starts shouting if it sees one. pic.twitter.com/xnRuV8LBCU

There’s always ‘robot life problems…’

farnazIr on Twitter: “The other day, we heard the googly eyed and friendly stop& shop robot alerting (in two different languages) of a found hazard! We braved it out to find out what this hazard was: a bottle cap! #robotLifeProblems pic.twitter.com/h965nscTy7 / Twitter”

The other day, we heard the googly eyed and friendly stop& shop robot alerting (in two different languages) of a found hazard! We braved it out to find out what this hazard was: a bottle cap! #robotLifeProblems pic.twitter.com/h965nscTy7

And maybe something about being followed by a googly-eyed robot in the grocery store is just a little, well, creepy.

meaghanbrophyđź’š on Twitter: “Met Marty the robot in my local Stop & Shop last night. He followed me around the store. Still not sure how to feel about it. 🤔 #retail pic.twitter.com/a6C7GnNADn / Twitter”

Met Marty the robot in my local Stop & Shop last night. He followed me around the store. Still not sure how to feel about it. 🤔 #retail pic.twitter.com/a6C7GnNADn

So what will possibly go wrong? Pearson suggests that three potential fails could be: they creep out shoppers, they don’t always save the right face, and they could take your job.

And what could possibly go right? Pearson points out three potential benefits: they’ll get the price right, they’ll show you the way, and they’ll do the grunt work without complaining.

So brace yourself, whether you find them creepy or cool, they’re coming…

Like what you read? Check out more from my WorkingNation blog, The Looming Robot.

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Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.