The San Jose State Ginger Market is the first store to implement autonomous artificial intelligence (AI) technology in the South Bay Area, creating a new advancement in customer service.
Located on the first floor of MacQuarrie Hall, which is between San Salvador street and the Paseo de San Carlos, the Ginger Market’s payment system allows customers to purchase without waiting in line or paying at a cash register.
SJSU engineering professor Ahmed Banafa said customers can enter the store by downloading the Boost mobile app, selecting Ginger market and scanning the code at the store entrance.
“There are many cameras in the store that monitor the movements of stick-shaped human buyers [as well as] for the products to send information about what is out of the shelf,” Banafa said in an email.
The cameras use technology from Standard AI, a San Francisco-based software company, that detects customers’ positions and movements as they shop, according to a Feb. 15 ABC news article.
Banafa said once the customer has purchased their items they can leave the store and the system will send a receipt in 20 minutes.
Saba Mahdavi, Standard AI senior data analyst said the whole system is camera-based and there are no sensors or facial recognition involved.
“The cameras in the ceiling are tracking the customers movements and it will see which product they've taken as they [walk] through the store,” Mahdavi said. “But no facial recognition at all, it's simply tracking what products the customers purchase.”
Mahdavi said the objective of an AI market is to get rid of the “transactional experience.”
“The goal is definitely to have it everywhere… available at all stores [so customers] can just go in, grab what they need and get out,” she said.
Standard AI co-founder David Valdman said students are more willing to test and implement new technology.
“If it works for [students] then they go for it,” Valdman said. “It’s great when you get things out of the way of people, there shouldn’t be anything in between a person and them wanting to buy whatever it is that they want.”
Electrical engineering senior Ashana Patel said the shopping experience was different but she’s excited to see the technology’s success.
“It was really cool but it kind of felt weird not checking out,” Patel said. “I just walked out, it [felt] a little bit like stealing.”
She said the new system is beneficial but she understands how other students may not agree with the new shopping method.
“It’s definitely beneficial to go through a contactless purchase…It would be cool if they implemented this across campus and would be easy, especially for the people that are here constantly,” Patel said. “But I also foresee there being issues; what if someone doesn’t have a smartphone, because that still exists, or their phone dies? There should technically be an extra method in those cases.”
SJSU educational counseling intern Zinnia Wilson said she’s against a completely AI-run store.
“I have never used Boost before and there needs to be other options because other people walk around with cash,” Wilson said. “I can’t believe I’d ever come to a day where they won’t accept cash.”
Henna Bath, communications senior and Ginger Market employee, said the system is innovative and an “insight to the future.”
“This kind of shopping will end up taking over eventually, so I think they should be doing this more often,” she said.
Bath said customers are adapting but some students are unaware of the Boost app.
“The only trouble that people tend to have is that they’re in a rush to passing classes. So they don’t really have time to download and go through the app,” Bath said. “We tend to give out flyers so it’s just easier for students to download it, put in the card information on their own time and then come back.”
SJSU associate director of commercial services Raymond Luu said the Boost app has been used in other on-campus establishments, including the Student Union and Village Market, and the technology is not that new.
He said there are no immediate plans to implement the new AI technology in other establishments on campus but the university is open to the possibility.
“We are open to the opportunity that we can implement [AI technology] in other stores,” Luu said in a Zoom call. “And if we were to install it into other units, we will ensure to go through the same process, ensuring privacy concerns and notation.”
He said introducing new AI technology at SJSU was intentional because the university is at the heart of Silicon Valley and the population may be more open to new technology.
“We are considered the gateway to Silicon Valley, so when Standard AI proposed this idea to us, we figured it made the most sense and best fit to do it here in San Jose,” he said.
