Fast Retailing uses AI for improved customer service

Japan’s capital expenditure boom is changing the country’s services sector, taking self-checkout systems and software mainstream. This shift has raised some concerns about the country’s valued sense of hospitality – a commitment called ‘omotenashi’.

As pinpointed by Reuters, socio-economic factors such as the population’s aging (working-age population is forecast to shrink by about a third in the next half century) are forcing companies to reinvent their approach to production and service.

Although turning to automation raises productivity, it might pose a threat to a highly valued, deeply rooted services-oriented culture. Some companies are leading the change, ensuring technology let them improve that human touch instead of replacing it.

It’s the case of the ‘Japanese Inditex’, Fast Retailing Co. The owner of UNIQLO has installed self-checkout tills at 195 stores for its low-cost apparel brand GU. The company says that customers like the machines, but that it will not cut staff.

“The new system increases efficiency for store operations significantly, hence store staff can spend more time with customers when shopping,” a spokeswoman for Fast Retailing said in an interview with Reuters. She confirmed that “This initiative actually improves our service level.”