During a week-long trial period, a Sanctuary AI robot successfully completed 110 retail-related tasks in the first ever deployment of its kind at a Mark’s retail store in Langley, BC, Canada.
The store put the robot through its paces, putting it through tasks like picking and packing merchandise, cleaning, tagging, labeling, folding, and more. Sanctuary AI claims to have only previously performed such tasks in a controlled environment.
The humanoid machine worked under the supervision of a human worker, no jobs were lost in the creation of the moment, and robot-wrangling jobs, born from venture capital, were preserved. Sanctuary AI is backed by a number of investors, which strengthens their ecosystem even further. Bell, Canadian Tire Corporation, Evok Innovations, Export Development Canada, Magna, SE Health, Verizon Ventures, and Workday Ventures are among the Sanctuary AI investors.
Sanctuary AI has raised more than C$100 million in funding since its inception in Vancouver, Canada in 2018, and it is currently seeking funding for its next round to further its mission.
Geordie Rose, co-founder and CEO of Sanctuary AI, said in a statement that the company’s general-purpose robot performed “many necessary but rudimentary tasks that people note finding unsatisfying or unfavorable” and expressed enthusiasm with the results.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.