Consumer Products & Services

This is 4R's sixth consecutive year participating in the show and will present its latest Merchant Analytics approach. NextPoint provides an exclusive annual event which offers retailers and solution providers an experience uncommon from other industry events and trade shows. Mark Garland, Executive Vice President Sales, Marketing & Solutions, said, "It is hard to believe this will be our sixth year presenting at NextPoint. The last five years at NextPoint have provided excellent networking opportunities. We are looking forward to sharing how 4R positions retailers to earn more profit from their inventory with proven success stories."

I would like a large cheese pizza with an ominous side of surveillance, please. Earlier this year, Domino's, the worldwide purveyor of mediocre pizza, introduced a snazzy tool called the Dom Pizza Checker to its Australia and New Zealand locations. According to its website, in-store cameras "use advanced machine learning, artificial intelligence and sensor technology to identify pizza type, even topping distribution and correct toppings". If your food doesn't match your order, or internal quality standards, workers are ordered to make it again. Basically, Big Brother is watching your pizza.

CATONSVILLE, MD, September 23, 2019 - Chatbots, which use artificial intelligence to simulate human conversation through voice commands or text chats, incur almost zero marginal costs and can outsell some human employees by four times, so why aren't they used more often? According to new research, the main contributor is customer pushback. The machines don't have "bad days" and never get frustrated or tired like humans, and they can save money for consumers, but new research in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science says if customers know about the chatbot before purchasing, sales rates decline by more than 79.7%. The study authors, Xueming Luo and Siliang Tong (both of Temple University), Zheng Fang of Sichuan University, and Zhe Qu of Fudan University, targeted 6,000 customers from a financial services company. They were randomly assigned to either humans or chatbots, and disclosure of the bots varied from not telling the consumer at all, to telling them at the beginning of the conversation or after the conversation, or telling them after they'd purchased something.

CHIBA, JAPAN--Technology has made its way into just about everything we have and everywhere we go, even the bathroom – and the bed, the work uniform, and many other unlikely places. No place is that clearer than in Japan at the CEATEC tech trade show just outside of Tokyo. You may not see all of these things in a store, home or office near you anytime soon – CEATEC's emphasis on research made it look a bit like a science fair compared to such larger gadget gatherings as CES in Las Vegas and IFA in Berlin. But Japan's longstanding status as a leading indicator of technology makes it likely that some of these things will wind up in your life. On this convention's first day, All Nippon Airways president and CEO Shinya Katanozaka talked up the airline's plans to let people skip flying by experiencing other places through robot avatars.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is redefining the travel industry and helping the businesses to assist the travelers to achieve their goals. AI is helping the traveling industry to keep on offering travelers the cutting edge services. Business in tours and traveling are integrating Artificial intelligence to elevate the traveler's experience. AI enabled apps helps the users or the travelers to autonomously adjust prices of flights or rooms depending on their needs. These days travelers rely on technology to keep moving along in their pursuit of preference around the world.

Machines' ability to learn by processing data gleaned from sensors underlies automated vehicles, medical devices and a host of other emerging technologies. But that learning ability leaves systems vulnerable to hackers in unexpected ways, researchers at Princeton University have found. In a series of recent papers, a research team has explored how adversarial tactics applied to artificial intelligence (AI) could, for instance, trick a traffic-efficiency system into causing gridlock or manipulate a health-related AI application to reveal patients' private medical history. As an example of one such attack, the team altered a driving robot's perception of a road sign from a speed limit to a "Stop" sign, which could cause the vehicle to dangerously slam the brakes at highway speeds; in other examples, they altered Stop signs to be perceived as a variety of other traffic instructions. "If machine learning is the software of the future, we're at a very basic starting point for securing it," said Prateek Mittal, the lead researcher and an associate professor in the Department of Electrical Engineering at Princeton.

At multiple restaurants operated by one of its franchisees, Outback Steakhouse is testing machine learning (ML) technology from Presto. The test is focused on the restaurant lobby, but could grow to the kitchen, curbside pickup and dining room areas, CNBC reported. Presto Founder and CEO Rajat Suri said the technology assists restaurants in fixing blind spots, noting that "managers can't be everywhere at all times." Cameras capture and analyze the actions of waiters, hosts and customers to bolster diner satisfaction. The technology can track cleanliness (or lack thereof) of lobbies, extended wait times and the number of diners who leave without being acknowledged or shown to a table.

As casual dining chains have declined in popularity, many have experimented with surveillance technology designed to maximize employee efficiency and performance. Earlier this week, one Outback Steakhouse franchise announced it would begin testing such a tool, a computer vision program called Presto Vision, at a single outpost in the Portland, Oregon area. Your Bloomin' Onion now comes with a side of Big Brother. According to Presto CEO Rajat Suri, Presto Vision takes advantage of preexisting surveillance cameras that many restaurants already have installed. The system uses machine learning to analyze footage of restaurant staff at work and interacting with guests.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is the world's oldest international airline still operating under its original name. On its 100th anniversary, FTE spoke to Daan Debie, Director Engineering & Architecture, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, who outlined how the airline has embraced innovation through its "pioneering and entrepreneurial spirit". Indeed, KLM's vigorous digital transformation strategy is largely due to recognising and leveraging the advantages of modern technology. Debie, who will speak in the Premium Conference at FTE-APEX Asia EXPO 2019 (12-13 November, Singapore), explains: "Digital transformation does not just mean replacing paper with apps. For us it means getting the right information to the right people at the right time to enable well-informed decision-making in an increasingly complex environment, supported by digital tooling. "Key to this is to be truly data-driven, working from a single-source-of-truth and applying cutting-edge technology and algorithms to make sense of the complex operations." KLM is currently investing heavily in building automated decision-making tools to improve operations. In June last year, the airline embarked on a unique partnership with Boston Consulting Group (BCG) which has the potential to "revolutionise global airline operations". The project is a result of a close collaboration between KLM Operations Decision Support and Operations frontline teams, BCG's consulting team, and members of BCG Gamma, an artificial intelligence and advanced analytics entity of data scientists, data engineers and software developers, who have developed a solution based on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and advanced optimisation that addresses all elements of the airline operations, while having a positive impact on customer experience and operating costs. With these tools, KLM and other airlines will be able to tackle the most complex decisions pertaining to fleet, crew, ground services and network, with a focus on breaking down the typical silos across these departments. Earlier this year, Brazilian low-cost carrier GOL became the first airline customer of the KLM-BCG joint venture which will help GOL deliver better on-time performance to its customers while maintaining low costs. As Director Engineering & Architecture for the Department of Operations Decision Support (ODS) at KLM, Debie is responsible for creating and maintaining a cohesive overall architecture and technological vision for the products and platforms developed at ODS, but also for other clients within the partnership between KLM and BCG. "I help teams within ODS and BCG/KLM teams at Partnership clients to build their products in accordance with the architectural vision," he explains. "Additionally, I'm responsible for ensuring that we maintain high engineering standards in our development efforts.

After years of development, Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing is officially open for business. The company announced the beginning of service for residents of Christiansburg, Virginia, who will be able to order over-the-counter medication, snacks, and other small items and have them airlifted straight to their homes by a drone. Initially, Wing will deliver goods on behalf of three partner companies with FedEx, Walgreens, and Super Magnolia, a local Virginia grocery store chain. After years of preparation, Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing has officially begun operations in Christiansburg, Virginia The company made the announcement via a blog post on Medium and included a video showing how the delivery service will work. The FAA approved Alphabet's drone delivery program in March, and the company announced it's plans for'store to door' of more than 100 products in Virginia last September.