Aeon, a large Japanese supermarket chain, has adopted a new artificial intelligence system to evaluate employees' smiles and strive to "standardize" them. On July 1, Aeon announced the adoption of a "smile rating artificial intelligence system" (called "MrSmile") in 240 stores across Japan, making Aeon the first company to adopt such technology.
'MrSmile', developed by Japanese company InstaVR, is said to accurately assess an employee's demeanor and score their overall attitude based on more than 450 factors, including their greetings, facial expressions, volume and intonation.
Aeon stated that its goal is to "standardize employees' smiles and satisfy customers' needs to the greatest extent. MrSmile incorporates game elements to encourage employees to improve their scores, thereby maximizing the improvement of "service attitude"...
Aeon said it successfully trialed the AI software in eight stores, involving about 3,400 employees, and that "service attitude" was said to have improved 1.6 times in the three months before it was recently rolled out to all stores.
With an employee's every move and even expression being monitored to this degree throughout their entire shift, it will inevitably lead to some form of attitude adjustment, especially in a country known for its "face". But we can't help but feel that this technology looks a lot like the beginning of a Black Mirror episode.