FairPrice to roll out AI-powered smart carts to more stores

Singapore grocery and retail giant FairPrice Group (FPG) is expanding its artificial intelligence (AI) innovations to supermarkets across Singapore by the end of 2026. The move follows a successful pilot at the Punggol Digital District outlet, where the Store of Tomorrow program demonstrated significant improvements in shopping efficiency and staff productivity.

Key Facts from the Expansion

• 48 outlets will be equipped with smart carts by end of 2026, including FairPrice Xtra and Finest stores.
• Smart carts reduce average checkout time from several minutes to just 36 seconds.
• Digital price cards will save 15,000 man-hours and $138,000 annually by eliminating paper tags.
• The Grocer Genie app consolidates up to 50 handheld applications for staff, automating tasks like stock replenishment and rostering.
• The initiative is developed in collaboration with Google Cloud's Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform.

The smart carts act as personal shopping assistants, helping customers navigate aisles with turn-by-turn directions, offering personalized promotions based on shopping history, and allowing scanning and payment directly on the cart. Customers can remove a tablet after checkout to push the trolley to the parking lot, addressing feedback from the pilot where fixed carts caused frustration.

Vipul Chawla, Group CEO of FairPrice Group, emphasized the goal of removing friction from weekly grocery runs: “By bringing proven AI solutions from our Store of Tomorrow programme to more supermarkets across the island, we want to reimagine the shopping experience for our customers.”

The staff-facing Grocer Genie app shifts task management from employees to AI. It integrates with in-store video analytics to detect stock-outs and trigger replenishment notifications. For branch manager Sarah Jane Vasquez at the Punggol store, the app automates manual work like eyeballing shelf restocking and staff rostering, freeing time for coaching.

Dennis Seah, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at FPG, described Grocer Genie as the staff's “new friend, new agent and new sidekick.” The company is also exploring robotics to assist older employees with heavy lifting and shelf-stocking, moving from agentic AI to physical automation.

The expansion reflects a broader trend in Southeast Asia where retailers like Agoda and Ryt Bank are leveraging AI to transform customer and employee experiences. FairPrice's approach ensures that technology serves both consumers and workers, as Seah noted: “We always believe that the customer experience will never exceed that of the staff experience.”

Source: ComputerWeekly.com News