Grocery giant Sobeys has unveiled what it calls Canada's first smart shopping cart at a store in Ontario. It's a great idea for people looking for assistance in shopping and to be on their way as soon as possible. The project is a partnership with New York-based retail technology company Capers. Essentially, the cart you grab as you enter the store has high-tech devices that allow customers to shop, get recipe ideas, obtain information on where to get ingredients, weigh and pay for their food. The cart also has GPS so you can find whatever you need in the store. The Smart Cart has been developed to allow shoppers to bypass traditional checkout lanes, one of the most unpleasant parts of grocery shopping.

Sean McBride is the founder of DSM Strategic Communications. He is the former executive vice president of communications & membership services at the Grocery Manufacturers Association and former director of communications at the American Beverage Association. We are on the precipice of an artificial intelligence revolution. The signs are all around us. Autonomous vehicles traverse our roads, drones crisscross the sky and robots navigate grocery store aisles.