The robot takeover looks a lot different from what we see in Hollywood thrillers.<\/p>\n
Even as artificial intelligence-powered humanoid robots dance, box and beat human running-speed records, the physical bots showing up in our daily lives in Los Angeles are less Terminator and more R2-D2. <\/p>\n
On a Wednesday afternoon at Ralphs on Pico Boulevard, a skinny, six-foot-tall tower of sensors rolled through the aisles. It made low beeping noises, its lights flickering purple and green. A small screen on the top of the tower had two blinking eyes and a small line of text. \u201cHi, I\u2019m Tally!\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cRobot! Robot!\u201d a young boy yelled. Some adults looked confused; others laughed. <\/p>\n
Ricardo Valadez, a 62-year-old real estate agent from Mid-City and Ralphs regular, said he felt like the robot was stalking him around the store but was reassured by an employee that it just checks the shelves to see what is missing or out of place. <\/p>\n
\u201cI was kind of like, \u2018What the hell is that?\u2019\u201d Valadez said. \u201cI don\u2019t know why; I felt that it was following me.\u201d<\/p>\n
With a recent rollout in some L.A. grocery stores, the inventory bot, built by Burlingame-based company Simbe Robotics, joins the other free-range forms of physical AI that are already a part of everyday life in L.A. such as food-delivery bots and Waymos.<\/p>\n
From inventory management to marketing and checkout, retailers are increasingly adopting automation. The retail automation market could jump to $77 billion by 2034 from $28 billion in 2025, according to estimates from<\/a> market research company Fortune Business Insights.<\/p>\n Simbe says more than 3,000 of its bots have been contracted to monitor shelves worldwide. Kroger, the parent company of Ralphs, is using hundreds of them after pilot projects that started in Indianapolis and Cincinnati, and recently spread to California. <\/p>\n \u201cSimbe provides shelf intelligence technology that helps store teams more easily identify and address products that are low or out of stock, giving associates better information to support store operations and serve shoppers,\u201d said a spokesperson for Simbe Robotics in an email. <\/p>\n Simbe says Tally helps employees dedicate more time to shoppers. In January, the company revealed its latest model of the robot, Tally 4.0, which uses newer Nvidia chips and software that speeds up scanning shelves to create insights. <\/p>\n Once Tally alerts employees of any misplaced or out-of-stock items. Simbe said the robot \u201cis designed to understand shelf conditions, not identify or track humans.\u201d<\/p>\n Other retailers in Los Angeles have also introduced Tally to their aisles, such as Bristol Farms in Santa Monica. Tally has also been spotted at retailers across the country, including Kroger, Lowe\u2019s, Tesco and BJ\u2019s.<\/p>\n \u201cLast year, Kroger began using robotic technology to gain real-time insights on product inventory,\u201d a Ralphs spokesperson said. \u201cThis technology means our associates can more easily and quickly identify and address shelves where products are low or out of stock.\u201d<\/p>\n The spokesperson declined to provide information about how many Tally bots have been deployed at its Los Angeles locations. A LinkedIn post<\/a> from a store manager at Kroger-operated Smith\u2019s Food and Drug stores said Kroger deployed its 500th robot across all of Kroger in August. <\/p>\n During Kroger\u2019s earnings announcement in March, Chief Financial Officer David Kennerley said the company was \u201cinvesting aggressively\u201d in artificial intelligence and that has helped it save money. <\/p>\n Rachel Fournier, an employee at Ralphs on Vermont Avenue and Adams Boulevard, said the Tally bot \u201cjust showed up out of nowhere\u201d a few months ago. <\/p>\n \u201cOne day, they were there wandering around the store,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Unions are concerned the bots \u2014 which Simbe claims<\/a> can save employees up to 50 hours of work per week \u2014 could put human employees out of work. <\/p>\n