What is AI checkout?#
AI checkout, also called computer vision checkout or visual checkout, uses cameras and machine learning to identify products by how they look instead of by scanning barcodes. The shopper places items on a tray or counter, the system identifies them all at once, and the shopper pays. Because nothing needs a barcode, AI checkout also handles hot food, fountain drinks, and other non-barcoded items.
AI checkout differs from barcode self-checkout, where shoppers scan items one at a time, and from autonomous (walk-out) stores, which track shoppers through the whole store with ceiling cameras and sensors. Mashgin invented multi-camera 3D computer vision checkout and has the largest installed base.
What is assisted checkout?#
Assisted checkout is a checkout model in which AI rings up the items and a staff member stays at the counter to handle ID checks, questions, and service. It sits between a traditional cashier lane and unattended self-checkout: neither the shopper nor the cashier scans anything, so one cashier can serve 3 or more customers at once. Mashgin's Power Counter is built for this model in convenience stores. In Mashgin's C-Store Throughput Study, one cashier with one Mashgin completed 30 transactions per 15-minute rush, vs. 22 for two cashiers on traditional registers.
How is AI checkout different from barcode self-checkout, scan-and-go apps, and RFID checkout?#
All four reduce cashier work, but they differ in how items are identified:
Barcode self-checkout: the shopper scans each item. It is slow for multi-item orders, awkward for items without barcodes, and usually needs staff for age-restricted items.
Scan-and-go apps: the shopper scans items with a phone while shopping. It requires an app download, suits frequent shoppers in larger stores, and usually needs a check at the exit.
RFID checkout: a tag on every item is read automatically. Each tag adds cost to the item, and the approach doesn't work for made-to-order food.
AI checkout: cameras identify everything on the tray at once. Shoppers don't scan, download an app, or need tagged items, and it handles hot food, fountain drinks, and produce.
Does Uniqlo use Mashgin, and how is Uniqlo's checkout different?#
No, Uniqlo doesn't use Mashgin, but for the shopper the two checkouts feel very similar: place your items down, pay and go. The difference is in how the items are identified:
- Uniqlo uses RFID. Because Uniqlo is vertically integrated, it can embed an RFID tag in the tag of every product it manufactures and sells. At checkout, an RFID reader recognizes and rings up every item.
- Mashgin uses computer vision. Cameras recognize items by how they look, so Mashgin works with virtually any type of product, with no changes to the product or its packaging. That includes products from many different suppliers and unpackaged items like hot food and fountain drinks.
Mashgin can also read RFID tags when an operator wants to use them for items that can't be told apart visually, such as different sizes of the same T-shirt. Computer vision can't distinguish those unless the size marking is visible to the cameras, so RFID fills that gap.
Are retailers getting rid of self-checkout?#
Some are scaling it back. Walmart has removed self-checkout at several stores, citing customer and employee feedback, and Target limited self-checkout to 10 items or fewer in 2024, saying testing showed it improved customer satisfaction (Target says it has no plans to remove self-checkout). Analysts link part of the pullback to theft and to shoppers' frustration with scanning their own items.
Those problems come from the scan-it-yourself model rather than from checkout automation itself. Assisted AI checkout keeps a staff member at the counter and removes scanning entirely. In Mashgin's audit of 1,167 stadium transactions, total loss from all causes was 1.3%, below the 1.62% industry average, and in Mashgin's survey of 2,500 convenience store shoppers, 85% preferred Mashgin over traditional checkout. While scan-it-yourself self-checkout is losing ground, AI checkout is growing quickly. Mashgin's monthly transactions grew 1,233%, from 3 million in March 2022 to 40 million in March 2025, and Mashgin has since passed 1.7 billion total transactions and 44 million unique monthly active users across more than 5,000 locations.
Does AI checkout replace cashier jobs?#
It reduces the number of cashiers needed per transaction, and in most Mashgin deployments it changes what cashiers do. Instead of scanning, staff handle ID checks, service, stocking, and cleaning. Ski resorts using Mashgin reallocate about 50% of front-of-house labor, and convenience store shoppers rated Mashgin stores clean or very clean 77% of the time, vs. 58% at stores without it. Staff tend to prefer the change: 80% of cashiers and 88% of store managers and shift leaders preferred Mashgin over traditional checkout.