Ukrainian Yevgenia Shneider created SenseAI technology, which allows brands to analyze customer reactions to products without collecting personal data — right in stores.
Ukrainian Yevgenia Shneider created SenseAI technology, which allows brands to analyze customer reactions to products without collecting personal data — right in stores.
As reported in a press release on this occasion, the technology is most suitable for use in retail and the beauty industry.
«The development has already attracted the attention of global chains, in particular, the global chain Sephora is preparing documents for pilot testing in various countries,» the report states.
The device for collecting customer feedback and reactions looks like a small box, which is integrated in color and style into each shelf in the store individually so as not to disrupt the visual part.
This small module with Edge AI technology is installed directly next to the product and records the emotional reaction of shoppers. The system instantly converts the heard signal into an anonymous mathematical tag — for example, «scent too strong» or «suitable for the office». In this case, the audio is not stored: the sound is deleted from the device’s memory immediately after processing.
The developer calls her approach «cultural privacy,» because, according to her, the system is built on the Privacy-by-Architecture principle, which means it technically makes it impossible to store or leak personal data.
As the author of the development predicts, such a system can reduce the amount of unsold goods disposed of by 18–27% and potentially save the industry over $12 billion per year, because, as Yevgenia Shneider says, the concept of big data in physical retail often does not meet the real needs of the business.
«Big Data in stores creates terabytes of information noise. The most valuable signal is not the buyer’s identity, but the reason for their decision. If a person says ‘the fragrance smells like soap,’ the brand gets an accurate answer to the question ‘why,’» she notes.
As dev.ua reported, Makeup, the largest online cosmetics retailer in Ukraine, has launched an AI assistant called Sofi. The digital consultant is available only to registered users.
