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In recent years, artificial intelligence has increasingly impacted a variety of sectors, including the workplace, education, and entrepreneurship. Japan is taking this a step further by integrating AI into its customer service strategy to perfect the “art of the smile.”
According to the report: South China Morning PostJapanese supermarket chain Aeon has introduced “Mr Smile,” an AI system designed to standardize and improve employee smiles.
On July 1, AEON announced that it would be the first in the world to introduce an AI system that evaluates smiles at 240 stores nationwide.
How does the “Mr Smile” AI work?
The AI system, named “Mr Smile”, was developed by Japanese technology company InstaVR and is designed to accurately assess a store employee's attitude based on more than 450 factors, including facial expressions, voice volume and greeting tone.
The game-like system encourages staff to improve their scores and their service attitudes: Aeon conducted a three-month trial with 3,400 employees across eight stores and reported that their service attitudes improved by 1.6 times. South Carolina.
Employee Harassment Complaints
But the initiative has raised concerns that it could lead to an increase in harassment in the workplace, especially from customers. The report said this is known in Japan as “casuhara,” a significant issue in which employees face abusive language and repeated complaints.
A survey conducted by UA Zensen, Japan's largest labor union, found that of 30,000 service industry workers surveyed, almost half reported experiencing harassment from customers.
The report cited criticism that forcing service industry workers to wear standardized smiles could be a form of harassment for customers. Some respondents said smiles should not be commodified but should be genuine and authentic, and that using a machine to standardize smiles is inhuman and unrealistic.
McDonald's in Japan takes a similar approach
The initiative has been compared to McDonald's Japan's “Smile 0 Yen” campaign, where “Smile” has been on the menu for 0 yen since the 1980s to emphasize that a smile costs nothing. But the concept has come under heavy criticism in recent years for potentially adding stress to workers, some of whom earn the country's lowest wages.
In response to such concerns, Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issued guidelines against customer harassment in 2022, encouraging companies to maintain service standards without compromising employee well-being, South China Morning News Agency reported.
A supermarket in Fukuoka Prefecture recently introduced slower checkout counters for the elderly and physically disabled, which has been met with positive reviews: the move allows customers to check out in a maximum of 20 minutes, and has led to a 10 percent increase in sales, despite a drop in customer numbers.
First Edition: July 24, 2024 | 2:29 pm IST
