Retail robots prove power of human-machine

The pushback against automation technologies in the workplace hinges on the use of robots to do humans’ jobs. But enlisting robots to help humans perform their work is another matter — one that enterprises are pursuing in myriad ways.

Grocery store conglomerate Ahold Delhaize USA is deploying 500 robots to alert humans to food and beverage spills, the latest example of automation technology intended to augment, rather than replace, human jobs.

Following a successful pilot phase, Ahold’s services arm, Retail Business Services (RBS), is rolling out the “Marty” systems across its Giant/Martin’s and Stop & Shop grocery chains, RBS CIO Paul Scorza tells CIO.com. The nearly five-foot-tall robots are manufactured by retail automation company Badger Technologies.

Many CIOs streamline business processes using robotic process automation (RPA) to eliminate manual data entry, allowing them to reallocate employees to other tasks that drive business value. AI augmentation, a combination of human and artificial intelligence, will generate $2.9 trillion in business value and recover 6.2 billion hours of worker productivity by 2021, according to Gartner.