A Retail Robot Revolution is Not Far Off

Robots have long been the stuff of science fiction and our imaginations. They are now our reality. In fact, one may be greeting and assisting you during your next visit to your local retailer. Large retailers have used robots behind the scenes in stock rooms and warehouses for many years. Now they are starting to be used in the front of the store.

This fall, Lowe’s introduced LoweBot in select San Francisco Bay Area stores to monitor inventory levels on store shelves and assist customers in finding products. Other retailers like Best Buy and Target are also testing out their own customer service or inventory control robots. Later this year, SoftBank Robotics plans to make Pepper, an emotionally intelligent humanoid robot, available to U.S. retailers. Pepper is already hard at work for retailers in Japan. An initial run of a home-use version of Pepper sold out in under a minute in Japan.

Retailers hope to improve the shopping experience for customers through interactions with and services provided by their robots. At the same time these robots are improving efficiency and accuracy of more routine tasks like inventory control. As engagement between people and robots increase, so will many legal concerns.

As examples, privacy and cybersecurity are issues that will require attention because of the data that will be collected about customers. At present, interactions appear to be limited to identifying and directing customers to the correct aisle and shelf to find a specific product. It is not hard to imagine that as the technology matures, later versions will be far more interactive. Robots will be programmed to have the ability to exhibit more human-like behavior with the ability to think and make decisions based on sensory and data inputs. With more advanced robots, retailers will be able to create a more accurate profile of a customer’s buying behavior by collecting data on the types of interactions a customer is having. Predictive analytics could then use such data to offer recommendations based on a customer’s needs. This data collection adds another area that will require protection from data theft and manipulation.

As robots become more affordable and people become accustomed to interacting with them, robots will be deployed in variety of other businesses, including restaurants, banks, and hotels. Interactions between humans and robots will thus increase along with robot-related accidents. Like humans, robots are not infallible. Liability for robot-related accidents may not be easily assigned, especially in the case of an open robotic system like SoftBank’s Pepper. With open systems, independent developers are encouraged to develop applications to make robots more multipurpose and adaptable for a variety of activities.

As robots become more of a part of our daily lives, there will undoubtedly be growing pains as the legal parameters for human and robot engagement develops.