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

Independent convenience stores are deploying AI powered voice insights across 5200 locations through a partnership between the Strategic alliance for Affiliated Store Owners of America and In Store 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.

Jagar 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 basic various organizational levels.

Chris, I'm going to go to you first on this one.

You remember we interviewed J. Bleszinski, the founder of In Store AI back at max a few years ago.

We were really impressed by the technology and so I 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 I was super pumped when we interviewed him because this concept is near and dear to my heart.

And so for that I'm going to tell you a little story like so when I was a district manager at Target, there was a big push 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 of 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 were like became one of the best selling region best sellers of red cards in the entire west coast coast region of Target.

Like, 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.

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, 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.

I don't think that's as big of a concern as the media would like us to believe.

I mean, first of all, their 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, that 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, 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, 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.

And think about your, your cashier working at the convenience store by themselves.

Like, no one's 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's 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, 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 nax, 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 Gatorades had all the power in this up to this point because they're like, you're not performing.

But now they can both be be looking at the same data and really figuring out how to solve these problems together.

So 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 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 with that changing workforce and also answering your kind of thoughts about the privacy element of this and what, 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, like, where do I represent this brand and where am I?

Just a human speaking my mind.

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.

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 if it's pushing too much on.

We need to upsell.

We need to upsell.

And it's causing these cashiers to have inauthentic conversations like, hey, I got to mention Gatorade.

You're buying coffee and donuts.

You want to Gatorade with that?

I don't 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 711 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.

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 a 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.

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 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, they're, 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%, this is a great idea.