Photos: Let robots sort out your online orders… with help from humans

First came the self-checkout counters. Now, the UAE’s retail sector is seeing robots work in sync with their human counterparts to sort through incoming orders and have them ready for delivery.

So much change is happening in such a short timespan span as the retail industry keeps making more adjustments to COVID-19, contact-less shopping and payments. At the heart of this is the relentless push towards digital solutions… and AI.

Yes, Carrefour is tapping Artificial Intelligence to power its new concept of ‘Micro Fulfilment Centre’, the first of which is located within its Ibn Battuta Mall location.

So, how do the robots make their presence felt? Once an order streams in, the Centre utilizes AI to put the orders together from the storage area.

Autonomous Mobile Robots come to the assistance of their human colleagues to pick up the items and – at the same time - ensure that stocks are kept at optimum levels.

AI serves another purpose, in the form of an inventory placement machine that then allocates storage space for stock depending on demand for a particular product or category.

All incoming orders are processed in a small matter of 5 minutes – and that helps cut down the average time between order placement and dispatch by half.

This time gain translates into processing and sending out up to 200 orders every hour.

The Centre will come to the help of online orders coming from communities in the immediate vicinity of the Ibn Battuta Mall. The automated storage facility also includes a chilled section, which is a first of its type.

The hypermarket brand will operate a further two micro fulfillment centres.

According to retail industry sources, investments in all manner of supporting technology will be the top priority this year. Retailers realise that a majority of new customers who bought online during 2020 are sticking around. They may have reduced the volume of online purchases, but they are not in the mood to go for a complete halt.

As with everything related to consumers and their ways, going online and filling up the virtual cart is a habit. Once that’s done, the robots can do the rest in putting the order together.