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Artificial intelligence could not only reshape American businesses, but also change how companies hire seasonal workers.
ReverseLogix CEO Gaurav Saran is helping a growing number of retailers streamline their returns process by automating the process through a single platform. According to Saran, a cloud-based end-to-end returns management platform can significantly reduce the time it takes to complete the return process. But it also reduces the number of people needed during the holiday boom.
“Most of our customers see a 2-3x improvement in the speed and accuracy of their returns process,” Saran said. He predicted that a “significant number” of employees could be replaced, between 20% and 30%, as early as next year.
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Launched in 2014, Saran's platform monitors the entire returns process, from the moment a customer initiates a return to the inspection, processing, repair, replenishment and recycling stages.
Amazon.com Inc. packages are placed on a conveyor belt along with other smaller packages. (Luke Charette/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Traditionally, Saran said, companies have relied on highly inefficient return processes with manual paperwork, inconsistent processing across warehouses and channels, limited visibility, high costs and poor customer experience. These return operations also required hiring employees to manually inspect products to determine whether they could be restocked or needed to be discarded.
But Saran's mission has been to transform the returns process from a cost burden to a valuable part of the supply chain, one that can generate revenue and recover value through repair, resale, and re-commerce.
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Saran said his system makes companies more predictable. Most of his customers, from Samsonite and FedEx to Wilson and Cole Haan, have used the new system to process returns faster, reducing the risk of human error and saving money.
Warehouse utilizing ReverseLogix technology to initiate some returns. (Reverse Rox)
“Seasonal workers require a certain level of training to gain perspective expertise,” Saran says. “So all of this increases cost and time when compared to AI-based visual inspection.”
He pointed out that there is a lot of AI-related data surrounding the product that tells the system what state the product is in, and as the model is trained, its efficiency and accuracy become “significantly higher than a traditional worker doing the same process.”
Saran believes this type of process will become more mainstream as it provides companies with a clear way to reduce costs.
AI expert and business strategist Marva Baylor told FOX Business that AI is already changing the holiday workforce “in tangible and intangible ways.”
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For example, retailers once hired ushers and floor personnel whose primary job was to direct customers, answer basic inventory questions, and direct shoppers to the appropriate counter. Now, AI is “managing much of that through faster self-checkout guidance, interactive product search, real-time translation, and digital wayfinding,” she said.
Warehouse to initiate some returns. (Reverse Rox)
Byler said checkout areas have traditionally faced bottlenecks, requiring retailers to open additional lanes or deploy mobile handheld checkout teams during busy periods. But Baylor said that over the past few years, many of those proliferation roles have shifted to AI-enabled self-checkouts, mobile scan-and-pay and rapid product recognition systems that stabilize lines without adding staff.
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However, these tools often complement employees rather than replace them. For example, the ability to absorb transaction volume allows employees to “focus on the service, the exceptions, and the human moments that define the season,” Beiler said.
Saran said he believes the number of workers involved in the repatriation process will “reduce significantly over the next few years” but that workers will not be completely replaced. Even with his technology, certain products still require humans to review data, understand analytics, and set up systems, especially in difficult cases.
Human work still exists, even as tasks become more complex. But much of the mundane, routine work of processing returns will likely be done by machines or automation, Saran said.
