What: Sam’s Club will use AI to analyse receipts and free up time for sales associates.

Why it is important: That’s great but no information is provided on additional training and/or roles for sales assistants. Technological wishful thinking does not always induce human behaviour changes.

Sam’s Club is set to revolutionize its customer checkout experience by implementing AI-powered receipt verification technology, aiming to enhance convenience and streamline the shopping process. This technology will eliminate the need for manual receipt checks by store associates at exits. Currently piloted in 10 stores, the plan is to expand this to nearly 600 locations by year-end, marking Sam’s Club as the first retailer to use this digital receipt verification at scale.

This initiative aligns with Sam’s Club’s focus on improving the shopping experience, complementing existing technologies like scan-and-go, which allows customers to scan and pay for items via an app, bypassing traditional checkout lines. The AI technology, developed by in-house engineers, is designed to address the customer pain point of waiting for receipt verification before leaving the store. It's currently being tested in nine locations in Dallas and one in Joplin, Missouri.

CEO Chris Nicholas emphasized that this initiative is a response to member feedback and part of Sam’s Club's commitment to using digital innovations for an enhanced member experience. The company, however, has not disclosed the total investment cost for this technology.

In addition to the checkout tech, Sam’s Club and Walmart announced several other tech initiatives at CES in Las Vegas. These include a generative AI search feature in the Walmart app for iOS users, enabling more refined product searches across various categories based on use cases, location, and search history. Another feature is the AI-driven InHome Replenishment service, part of InHome delivery for Walmart+ members, which uses AI to predict and automatically add items to shopping carts for replenishment, while still allowing customer control over orders.

Furthermore, Walmart plans to expand its drone delivery service to cover 75% of the Dallas-Fort Worth area, partnering with drone companies Wing and Zipline. This expansion will reportedly create the largest drone delivery footprint of any U.S. retailer, serving an additional 1.8 million households across 30 towns and municipalities.

Sam’s Club to bring AI-based receipt verification to all stores