The idea being it reduces the number of staff needed to run the store because now we can restock shelves uninterrupted.
Of course, that’s not what’s happening. Instead of being asked where our canned mushrooms are, we’re now being asked where aisle 31 is, and we’re having to take extra time to find out what their actual question is.
Because there are only 14 aisles in the store.
Oh, and I actually like being asked where stuff is, because it breaks up the monotony of bringing out rollcomp, rotating, stocking, facing up, putting back rollcomp, repeat until lunch.
My local shop (Coles, for those reading from Australia) has one of the shittiest online search. I would search for “Rice” and it would show me results for Rice crackers, Rice milk, etc, and actual bags of rice interspersed between the other crap, in seemingly random order.
Even an AI with the intelligence of a three year old would probably be an improvement.