Robots

Rising interest in advanced retail technology is evolving the day-to-day role of in-store employees with every new available device. For example, automated assistants, such as the Lowe’s or SoftBank robots, can help consumers find specific products, offer customized promotions, provide inventory updates and ensure secure payments more efficiently than most human associates. Innovative technology can…

If Amazon.com is so automated, how come it continues to hire big numbers of people every time it opens a new fulfillment center? Just what is Amazon’s separation of labor between man and machine? To find out, we went inside Amazon’s Coppell, Texas facility with Amazon Spokeswoman Ashley Robinson on Wednesday.

Kyle Nel is executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs, where he's developed the Lowe's Holoroom, an augmented and virtual reality home improvement design tool, the OSHbot autonomous retail service robot, and in-store and online 3-D scanning and printing. In Nel’s words: “I (and my team) build new technologies that solve consumer problems, as envisioned through…