On July 1, the national brand announced it had become the first company in the world to promote a smile-measuring AI system that is being used in 240 stores across Japan .
Accordingly, the application called "Mr Smile" was developed by Japanese technology company InstaVR and is said to be able to accurately assess the service attitude of sales staff.
The system uses more than 450 factors including facial expressions, voice volume and greeting tone. It is also designed with many other engaging elements to encourage employees to improve their attitude by challenging their scores.
Aeon said that they tested this system at 8 stores with about 3,400 employees and found that service attitude improved up to 1.6 times within 3 months.
The policy raises concerns about whether AI systems will increase workplace harassment, especially from customers – a serious problem in Japan.
"Kasu-hara", which is behavior that harasses customers towards employees, manifests itself in the form of abusive language and constant complaints.
This year, nearly half of the 30,000 employees surveyed, who work in the service industry and other fields, told UA Zensen, Japan's largest union, about being harassed by customers. tangled.
An employee shared with UA Zensen: "A smile must be a beautiful thing, coming from the heart, not being treated like a product."
“Everyone is different, and they also express their feelings in different ways. Using machines to 'standardize' people's attitudes sounds cold and silly," another opinion said.
Aeon's actions have been compared to a strategy deployed by McDonald's in Japan called "Smile zero yen". Fast food chains in Japan have had the word "Smile" on their menus since the 1980s, with prices of "0 yen" to emphasize that greeting customers with a smile costs nothing.
This idea has been increasingly questioned in recent years because it is seen as placing an additional burden on the lowest-paid hourly employees in the country.
After Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare released guidelines on anti-harassment of workers in 2022, many companies are encouraged to maintain service standards without compromising employee welfare.
Recently, news of a supermarket in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, implementing a super slow checkout counter, where customers can spend up to 20 minutes to pay without feeling pressured, was well received. heat.
This measure is intended to show concern for elderly and disabled customers. However, despite fewer customers going through the checkout counter, sales still increased by 10%, according to Asahi TV.
