7-Eleven Bringing Facial-Recognition Technology to 11,000 Stores in Thailand
Thailand March 20 2018
The convenience store 7-Eleven is rolling out artificial intelligence at its 11,000 stores across Thailand, as the technology becomes more prevalent in Asia.
7-Eleven will use facial-recognition and behavior-analysis technologies to identify loyalty members, analyze in-store traffic, monitor product levels, suggest products to customers, and even measure the emotions of customers as they walk around.
The company announced it will be using technology developed by US-based Remark Holdings, which says its facial-recognition technology has an accuracy rate of more than 96%. Remark, which has data partnerships with Alibaba, Tencent, and Baidu, has a significant presence in China.
Facial-recognition technology is experiencing a boon across Asia, particularly in China where customers can use it to pay for food, get money from ATMs, and even get a loan.
And while China’s government is hoping to install 400 million surveillance cameras with facial-recognition by 2020, the rollout at Thailand’s 7-Eleven stores remains unique in scope. It could potentially be the largest number of facial-recognition cameras to be adopted by one company, especially one as entrenched in daily life as 7-Eleven.
With a population of nearly 69 million people, approximately 10 million consumers visit a 7-Eleven store each day.