A fully automated warehouse system is changing the way we shop for groceries. Imagine a grocery store where your entire order is picked, packed and ready for delivery in just five minutes without a single human hand touching your food. This is exactly what's happening inside Ocado's revolutionary Hive, a fully automated warehouse system that's changing the way we shop for groceries. At the core of Ocado's Customer Fulfilment Centres, or CFCs, is The Hive, a massive 3D grid filled with thousands of grocery products. GET SECURITY ALERTS & EXPERT TECH TIPS -- SIGN UP FOR KURT'S THE CYBERGUY REPORT NOW Picture fleets of robots or "bots" zipping around at speeds up to about 9 miles per hour, all coordinated by an AI-powered "air traffic control" system that talks to each bot ten times every second.

Instacart contracts hundreds of thousands of gig workers to fulfill customers' grocery orders, but the firm is working on replacing a number of human shoppers with robots in a bid to compete with Amazon's automated fulfillment service. The news, unearthed in company documents obtained by Bloomberg, states Instacart is eyeing automation as a way to cut costs for customers and help it form stronger relationships with supermarket chains. According to people familiar with the matter, the firm's strategy includes building an unknown number of automated fulfillment centers across the US, with some attached to existing grocery stores. Others would be standalone facilities that complete orders for several surrounding grocery stores. Robots would gather non-perishable goods, while human workers would collect produce and deli items in Instacart fulfilment centers.

Walmart is embracing a robot takeover in order to compete with Amazon. The Arkansas-based firm is using robots to fulfill grocery orders in one of its Supercenters and is set to add shelf-scanning machines to 650 additional stores by the end of the summer. The shift is aimed at reducing costs, improving store performance and gaining credibility in its battle against to reign supreme as the king of retail. Walmart announced it would soon incorporate automated robotic carts, called Alphabots, in one of its superstores in Salem, New Hampshire in 2018. Walmart is using robots to fulfill grocery orders in one of its Supercenters and is set to add shelf-scanning machines (pictured) to 650 additional stores by the end of the summer.

The company said Friday it's working with Alert Innovation on the Alphabot, which it's testing in Salem, New Hampshire. The mobile carts move up and down and sideways to retrieve items faster than if workers walked the aisles.