Japanese supermarket chain AEON has adopted an artificial intelligence (AI) system to assess and standardise its employees’ smiles, renewing the debate about workplace harassment. On July 1, the national brand announced it had become the world’s first company to promote a smile-gauging AI system, which it is using across its 240 shops around the country. Called “Mr Smile”, it was developed by the Japanese technology company InstaVR and is said to be able to accurately rate a shop assistant’s service attitude.
The system draws on more than 450 elements including facial expressions, voice volume and tone of greetings. It has also been designed with “game” elements that invite staff to improve their attitude by challenging their scores. AEON said it ran a trial of the system in eight stores with about 3,400 staff members, and found service attitude improved by up to 1.
6 times over a period of three months. The company said its goal was to “standardise staff members’ smiles and satisfy customers to the maximum”. The policy has sparked concerns over whether the AI system increases workplace harassment, especially from customers – a serious issue in Japan.
Known as “kasu-hara”, customer harassment comes in the shape of abusive language and repetitive complaints. This year, nearly half of the 30,000 staff surveyed, who work in the service industry and other sectors, reported experiencing customer harassment to Japan’s biggest union, UA Zensen. “When the.