In my opinion, Lowe's is one of the best "big box" realtors in terms of keeping plenty of employees out on the floor to address questions, provide customer service, etc.
Well, they are looking at stepping-up that customer service to a whole new level.
How?
The OSHbot
What is that? As you can see from the picture above, it's a robot. A robot that appears to be leading this gal around a non-Lowe's store.
What can OSHbot do? Check this out.....
In a typical interaction, an OSHbot would roll up and greet you as you walked in: “Hi, can I help you? What are you looking for today?” You might answer that you need to replace some plumbing pipes, prompting the OSHbot to ask whether you’ve got the original pipe. If you had it, you would put it in front of a viewfinder, and the robot would scan it, identify it, and direct you to the item in the store. It could even guide you to the place where the item is stocked. The OSHbot will be conversant in English and Spanish, to start, with other languages to be added later. It is also impressively self-sufficient: when it’s about to run out of power, it slides itself right over to a charging spot.
Read more about the OSHbot in this article from The New Yorker:
And in this press release from Lowe's:
Crazy stuff huh?
The thought of being led around a store by a robot resembling something from the movie WALL-E just really boggles my mind.
How many human jobs can be replaced by one of these OSHbot's?
And how many little kids are gonna get creamed by an aggressive OSHbot as it hurriedly leads a frantic customer to the toilet plunger section?
I understand that Lowe's wants to be cool and on the leading edge of technology.
But, I am also concerned that the concept of OSHbot, if the trials are successful, is going to spread and spread across not just Lowe's but other "big box" retailers.
Meaning jobs will be lost.
And children will be smooshed.
Out for now.....
Matt