5,200 Stores Turn to AI Voice | Fast Five Shorts

Independent convenience stores are deploying AI-powered voice insights across 5,200 locations through a partnership between the Strategic Alliance for Affiliated Store Owners of America and InStore.ai. According to C-Store Dive, the technology captures interactions between cashiers and customers and feeds that data into dashboards where team members can monitor how employees greet customers, mention loyalty programs, and attempt to upsell. Jigar Patel, VP of SAA, SOA USA said, quote, by capturing and analyzing the everyday conversations at the counter in-store AI gives our retail members clear transparency into what's working and what isn't, end quote. The rollout began this month and will continue through the year with implementation support, best practice playbooks, and access to insights for leaders at various organizational levels. Chris, I'm going to go to you first on this one. You remember we interviewed Jay Blasinski, the founder of InStore AI, back at Max a few years ago. We were really impressed by the technology. And so congrats to Jay. This is a big, big announcement for you and the team. But Chris, I wonder what your thought is now in 2026. How should operators balance the operational benefits of this technology with the potential employee privacy concerns, if any? yeah i mean this was a really tricky tricky question in today's environment but it's also one you know to your point when why i was super pumped when we interviewed him because this concept is near and dear to my heart and so for that i'm gonna tell you a little story like so when i was a district manager at target there was a big push uh to have our stores and our cashiers specifically to sell red cards and getting compliance for that was really tough and so i ended up coming up with this system where I created a spreadsheet and I required all my managers of the cashiers to send it to me every evening to update me on how their cashiers were performing in terms of selling red cards And you know what It worked But at the end of the day it worked so well that we actually became one of the best sellers of red cards in the entire West Coast region of Target. That's how well it worked. But the thing is for me, I took no satisfaction in that because it was incredibly time consuming and a huge pain in the butt for me, but most importantly for my stores. I didn't want them having to waste time recapping data for me. That's completely inefficient. So a system like this that could monitor it in real time to understand like, did the cashier offer a red card to that person? Did somebody sign up off that offer? All that data should now be coordinated and could be analyzed as an executive or as the managerial staff in the store to help improve things. So for that reason, I love this And that's just one example, but you can go into all kinds of different things like upsells, like you talked about. But, you know, the question is the privacy. But I don't think that's as big of a concern as the media would like us to believe. I mean, first of all, they're employees. They're not shoppers. And you already have cameras trained on the cashiers anyway. So this is just a further step in compliance, which also probably helps you at the end of the day pick up on some other things, too, which could be, you know, illegal activities, which wasn't talked about in the article. You know, if they're letting their friends come by and their friends are like, hey, can you give me a deal on this? You know, don't don't swipe the yogurt today, brand, you know, whatever it is. But like that stuff happens, too. So. So, yeah. So net net. I like this. I'm I'm less concerned about it from a privacy standpoint and think it has real legs here in the long run. Yeah, I especially in a convenience store. I mean, cameras are core to a convenience store, especially with their lean labor that they already have, like things are already being tracked. So I don't buy the privacy component to this. And I actually think this is something that's a win across the board for everyone. Think about your cashier working at the convenience store by themselves. Like no one there to track their progress to incentivize them to reward them to be like yes you did a great job Look at all the stuff that you accomplished you know while you were working there and continue to promote you know esteem among your staff that working in these stores most of the time independently. Then I think you look at all of the data that you now are able to provide both your retail partners, the owners of the convenience stores and the brands that are running these promotions. And that's one of the things that Jay told us back when we interviewed him at Naxx was that, you know, now they can give concrete information and say, no, you know, Gatorade, it wasn't, the problem isn't that we're not asking people. We are asking people, they just, the offer is not good enough, or we have to rethink how we're approaching this. And they've never had that data. It's all been based on, you know, the Gatorade's had all the power in this up to this point, because they're like, you're not performing, but now they can both be looking at the same data and really figuring out how to solve these problems together. So I, I, I think this is a really great move. I'm hopeful we see more C-store retailers and other retailers exploring this type of technology, um, as we kind of continue out and the workforce changes so much. And Jen, I'd love to have you wrap us up on thoughts here, um, with that changing workforce and also answering your kind of thoughts about the privacy element of this and what employees should expect. I agree with both of you. I think privacy concerns aren't a real issue when they're in the store clocked in, right? Like we're not monitoring their conversations outside of the store. When it comes to privacy concerns, things people are talking about and employees are talking about is more, what can I put on social media and what can't I? Like, where do I represent this brand? Um, and where am I just a human speaking my mind? Um, so in this case, I don't see that being an issue. They're in the store, they're clocked in. I think it's fair game. Um, I see the implementation of this, as long as it's geared towards, this is a coaching and development opportunity for you. I see it being a win-win. Um, if it's pushing too much on, we need to upsell we need to upsell and it causing these cashiers to have inauthentic conversations like Hey I got to mention Gatorade Um you buying coffee and donuts You want to Gatorade with that I don know Like, could it have some negative. Implications maybe, but I think really the opportunity here is how to coach and develop even the most basic things. It was mentioned like greeting the customer. You don't know how many, or we do right. As consumers and customers, how many people miss the art of just starting a conversation and the way that that actually builds loyalty in a lot cheaper fashion than a loyalty program. So if the person at 7-Eleven says, hey, how are you today? I saw you're getting a donut. Can I interest you in coffee? That's a real opportunity. And I think if this is used as a coaching and development tool, and if the leadership uses it in that way, there are huge opportunities here. It's a cool technology. It's almost like smart house and all of technology, right? Like it's really cool unless it goes too far, but I think there's a lot of upside. Yeah. And I think you call it a really important point of the, the wins here too. And that's the customer. I mean, who's expecting to have the positive experience when you go into a convenience store, pretty much no one. So this, this really enables that even just saying hello and greeting somebody. Uh, but Chris, close us out here with your thoughts. Yeah. I think, I love how Jen said, like, it should be used first and foremost as like a training tool, you know? And I think of the other element of training too, are there are things that stores have to comply with from a regulation standpoint as well. So like, you know, I think convenience stores, I think of alcohol, tobacco sales, like are your, are your employees asking to see IDs for example, and training them and coaching them if they're not like that's valuable, valuable data points for retailers, you know, in the long run. And, and then the other point I make too, is like, you're dead on, like convenience store industry, man, they're rushing after AI. And you can see why, because they're resource constrained in their stores. I mean, if I use that district manager example at Target, it's exponentially more difficult as a district manager for a convenience store because you're operating even more of them and they're spread out even more across a region. So, yeah, 100 percent. This is a great idea.