---
title: "Walmart Is Giving Up on Its Inventory Robots"
description: "Walmart has decided to give up on using inventory robots. Find out why they aren't as good at tracking inventory as humans."
date: "2020-11-02"
modified: "2020-11-11"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/walmart-giving-up-inventory-robots"
categories:
  - "Robotics"
  - "Robots and Machines"
tags:
  - "automation"
  - "robots"
  - "the digest"
  - "walmart"
---

# Walmart Is Giving Up on Its Inventory Robots

![Walmart thought building robots to track stores' inventories would make things easier, but the project ultirmately fell short.](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/walmart-gives-up-inventory-robots.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Walmart\</em\>*

## Unplugged Tour

After a years-long push to automate its stores with helpful worker robots, Walmart Inc. is pulling the plug.

While Walmart plans to experiment with some kinds of robots and automated tech, [according to *The Wall Street Journal*](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-shelves-plan-to-have-robots-scan-shelves-11604345341?>), the retail giant will no longer use robots to scan shelves and track inventory. It turns out that people still do the job better — and were less likely to [creep out both workers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/walmart-employees-hate-robot>) and customers.

## Simple Solution

It turns out that commissioning a robotics firm to develop mechanical workers just to check whether a shelf was empty wasn't the most cost effective way to keep an eye on inventory. For the foreseeable future, the *WSJ* reports, humans will handle the job instead.

"We learned a lot about how technology can assist associates, make jobs easier and provide a better customer experience," a Walmart spokeswoman told the *WSJ*. "We will continue testing new technologies and investing in our own processes and apps to best understand and track our inventory and help move products to our shelves as quickly as we can."

## Bitter Reality

Unfortunately, the news was devastating for Bossa Nova, the robotics firm that provided Walmart with its inventory robots. The firm, a Carnegie Mellon University-born startup, laid off half of its staff as it tries to drum up replacement business.

"We see an improvement in stores with the robots," Walmart told Bossa Nova, someone familiar with the deal told the *WSJ*, "but we don’t see enough of an improvement."

**READ MORE:** [Walmart Scraps Plan to Have Robots Scan Shelves](<https://www.wsj.com/articles/walmart-shelves-plan-to-have-robots-scan-shelves-11604345341?redirect=amp#click=https://t.co/a9z9hS1hrh>) \[*The Wall Street Journal*\]

**More on Walmart robots:** *[Walmart Employees Hate Their New Robot Coworkers](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/walmart-employees-hate-robot>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)