Yandex will begin developing cameras with artificial intelligence to monitor the variety of stores

The company posted on LinkedIn a job opening for a circuit engineer who would be responsible for developing, designing and testing autonomous cameras, the newspaper found. The engineer was hired for a project called “international B2B startup”, which passed the MVP (minimum viable product) stage and already has “the first contracts with major retailers in Russia, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan,” the publication writes.

Yandex is developing cameras with artificial intelligence as part of the Smart Store project, which is based on a computer vision system, the company clarified. The system collects data about the sales floor and creates its digital twin, as well as monitoring the availability of products and price tags on shelves, the accuracy of product display and aisle congestion.

The IT giant manufactures the cameras itself, allowing it to “reduce costs to make the service more affordable for partners,” the company added. Investments in the project or specific contracts are not disclosed there.

The X5 Group (which also owns Pyaterochka, Perekrestok and Chizhik) told Kommersant that they will soon start testing computer vision technology “with one of the main partners.” Fix Price is testing generative AI to identify empty shelves in a store; Lenta has tested a solution where employees can monitor on-shelf assortment integrity and planogram compliance online; Magnit is also using product recognition technology;

The purchase of cameras with AI and their use will not be justified for all retailers, says Andrey Golovkin, director of the IT contractor Fix Price Smart Retail Tech. According to him, the cost of such a device per month is about 40 thousand rubles, the price also depends on the number of cameras, coverage of the store area and other factors.