Could AI-Powered Employee Badges Become a Game Changer?
What’s in a name, when it comes to worker efficiency and data collection? As it turns out, plenty. To help retailers reduce out-of-stocks and optimize associate productivity and retention, one company is focusing on AI-powered wearable name badges.
Augmodo, which developed SmartBadges for real-time inventory and task tracking, recently announced that it has raised $5.3 million in seed funding. The latest round of investments support Augmodo’s badges that are based on spatial AI technology.
[RELATED: Wakefern Bolsters In-Store Inventory Tracking Technology]
Progressive Grocer recently spoke with the startup’s founder and CEO, Ross Finman, about how the augmented workforce technology can help retailers recoup lost revenue from inefficiencies and missed opportunities.
He got the idea for the business, he said, when he and his family were trying to find baby formula during the acute shortage a few years ago and found it difficult to even find such essential products in stock. “The number one pain point for parents is feeding. I was thinking, ‘Why don’t they know what’s on the shelf?'” Finman recalled.
As a computer vision expert and entrepreneur who sold his first company to the creators of the location-based “Pokémon Go” game, Finman felt that finding a solution was in his wheelhouse. “The technology had to be passive and scalable. This is a passive name badge that associates wear around their neck that tracks inventory,” he explained, adding that the technology is easy-to-deploy, installed in 20 minutes and with badges set into a charging station and easily picked up when shifts begin.
“As an associate walks down the aisle, you have a lot of data. It is 100 times cheaper with 10 times more data,” he pointed out.
He noted that the technology is passive in a privacy sense, too. “We are not tracking the employee – we don’t know who is wearing it and we have private filtering on the photos,” Finman explained, adding that assuaging concerns is an important part of the launch. “We want to make sure that people are happy with it.”
The capabilities combine the best of both worlds when it comes to in-store tasks assisted by what is billed as “practically-grounded” AI. “We are human-powered tech and we are working on how to bring more value to what associates are doing,” Finman said.
Augmodo’s badges are currently in pilot testing phase with retailers and brands around the country. Investors in the latest round of funding include Lerer Hippeau, with participation from Dunnhumby Ventures, NewFare Partners and Simple Food Ventures.
