Lowe's Introduces LoweBot, a New Autonomous In-Store Robot The LoweBot speaks multiple languages, and will be deployed to 11 stores to help guide home improvers to find items in store.

By Harriet Taylor

entrepreneur daily

This story originally appeared on CNBC

Lowe's via CNBC
LoweBot

"Hello, I'm NAVii. How can I help you?" This is how the store associate of the future may greet you.

Starting in the fall, Lowe's shoppers in the San Francisco Bay Area will be greeted by autonomous robots. The LoweBot speaks multiple languages, and will be deployed to 11 stores to help guide home improvers to find items in store.

"This is a response to things people wanted since retail began, but up until now there just wasn't the technology to be able to make that happen," said Kyle Nel, executive director of Lowe's Innovation Labs.

The robots, made by Fellow Robots, use a 3-D scanner to detect people as they into stores. Shoppers can search for items by asking the bot what they want or typing items into a touch screen. The bot can guide them to those items using smart laser sensors, similar to the technology used in autonomous vehicles, said Marco Mascorro, chief executive officer of Fellow Robots.

As customers follow the bots to find items on store shelves, location-based special offers show up on a second screen on the back of the LoweBot.

The LoweBot is the younger sibling of the OSHBot, an earlier version which Lowe's tested in Orchard Supply Hardware stores over the past two years. The most surprising query OSHBot had to deal with? "Where are the restrooms?" said Nel.

The LoweBot is not a fancy looking device with a lot of bells and whistles. Its role is to find solutions to consumers' most basic problems, said Nel.

"The LoweBot solves and serves our common cold problems," he said. "When I walk into a store and I want to know where something is I want to know right then -- I don't want to have to download an app -- a robot can really help with that."

The LoweBot also scans shelves using computer vision to send up-to-date information to store associates, even while it is showing people around the store. Inventory tracking may seem mundane and boring, but is incredibly important to a retailer, said Nel.

It never calls out sick and doesn't need to take coffee breaks. That said, the goal is to augment the work of store associates and free them up to work on advising customers on products and delivering a more personalized service overall, not replace them, said Nel. For example, the LoweBot can serve as a translator, since it is impossible to find store workers who understand every customer, he said.

Could the LoweBot one day eliminate jobs? "Most definitely not -- my phone doesn't make me obsolete," said Nel.

"Having had this in stores for two years, I was shocked at how fast customers and store associates got used to it," he said.

Harriet Taylor

Tech Reporter

Harriet Taylor is a technology reporter for CNBC

Want to be an Entrepreneur Leadership Network contributor? Apply now to join.

Business Ideas

63 Small Business Ideas to Start in 2024

We put together a list of the best, most profitable small business ideas for entrepreneurs to pursue in 2024.

Side Hustle

The Remote Side Hustle a 43-Year-Old Musician Works on for 1 Hour a Day Earns Nearly $3,000 a Month: 'All From the Comfort of Home'

Sam Ziegler wanted to supplement his income as a professional drummer — then his tech skills and desire to help people came together.

Data & Recovery

Get 20TB of Cloud Storage for $90 During This 48-Hour Flash Sale

Prism Drive Secure Cloud Storage makes uploading, sharing, and securing data easy for business professionals.

Leadership

Improving Yourself Takes 9.6 Minutes of Work Each Day

Micro-habits are the antidote to a chaotic world, offering a pathway to sustainable change.

Devices

Add a Digital Art Gallery to Your Office for $33

Dreamscreens is a USB plug-in that can play a rotating selection of famous artworks on your TV while it sits otherwise unused.

Productivity

7 Strategies for Being More Productive This Year, According to a Time-Management Guru

From scheduling your bedtime to taking me time, these are ways to make every hour count this year.