7-Eleven brings facial-recognition technology to stores in Thailand

7-Eleven Thailand is to roll out advanced AI technology, including facial recognition of employees and customers, across all 11,000 stores in the kingdom.

The convenience store chain’s parent, CP All, has signed a contract with US-Chinese technology company Remark to use its KanKan data intelligence and AI-based facial recognition and behavior-analysis technologies which it says will provide enhanced customer support, business analysis, employee management and security.

An estimated 10 million people walk into 7-Eleven Thailand stores each day and the KanKan technology can monitor such things as how long a customer lingers in specific places in-store, and even record their emotions. It can identify members of 7-Eleven’s loyalty program allowing management to offer them tailored promotions.

From a store-management perspective, the technology can monitor stock levels on shelves and provide real-time operations performance and competitor analysis, check employees on and off shift and identify unauthorised personnel on site.

“The KanKan implementation at 7-Eleven marks our first major collaboration with Remark,” said CP Group chairman Soopakij Chearavanont.

“The 7-Eleven team evaluated many AI technologies and selected KanKan because it has the most robust platform for meeting business objectives, namely, driving revenues, reducing costs and rapidly improving profit margins.”

Remark Holdings’ CEO and chairman, Kai-Shing Tao said the 7-Eleven partnership represents “an incredible opportunity to implement our KanKan technologies on a massive scale”.

Chearavanont told a media briefing that the technology would help the chain cut costs, improve revenues and increase margins.

Remark has promised that no images of human faces will be stored on servers by 7-Eleven, apparently addressing privacy concerns relating to what happens to recordings, something being raised by lobby groups around the world.

The companies say only facial features – not whole faces – are used to generate data which is encrypted.

“No human faces or images ever leaves the KanKan system or goes on the public network,” the company said.