Amazon uses tool to detect defective products before shipping

Amazon has deployed a tool in various distribution centers in the US that scans products before shipping and tries to detect defective products. This should prevent customers from receiving defective products at home.

Amazon calls it Project PI, Private Investigator. The software scans camera images of products ready for shipment to detect defects. It uses image recognition and self-learning algorithms, which Amazon refers to as generative AI, to recognize the defects. After the software recognizes a defective product, it is moved to a separate location so that a human employee can check it. This assesses whether Amazon can still ship it, whether it can be sent to the Second Chance site or whether it must be completely recycled.

The intention is to minimize returns with the software. The tool can also learn from previous findings and, in the event of a return, for example, it will look back at the camera images to see if anything could have been seen on them, and then adjust the criteria accordingly. Amazon says it wants to use the tool in more distribution centers, for now only in the US.

Amazon Project PI