Accelerating AI Adoption: Taiwan's Convenience Store Giants Strive to Reduce Working Hours and Waste
Taiwan's leading convenience store chains, Uni-President Chain Store and FamilyMart, are accelerating AI adoption to address labor shortages and operational costs. They are comprehensively digitizing operations from ordering to equipment management and store services, aiming to reduce waste, shorten working hours, and improve operational efficiency.
📋 Article Processing Timeline
- 📰 Published: May 2, 2026 at 11:02
- 🔍 Collected: May 2, 2026 at 11:31 (29 min after Published)
- 🤖 AI Analyzed: May 2, 2026 at 12:05 (33 min after Collected)
Central News Agency
(Central News Agency reporter Ho Hsiu-ling, Taipei, 2nd) Under the dual pressures of labor shortages and operating costs, convenience stores are entering a new round of channel competition. Uni-President Chain Store and FamilyMart are accelerating the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), comprehensively digitizing everything from ordering and equipment management to store services. AI has upgraded from an auxiliary tool to a core battlefield for channel competition, hoping to reduce waste, shorten working hours, and improve operational efficiency.
Observing the layouts of the two major convenience stores, FamilyMart has focused on "optimizing internal operational efficiency" in recent years, while Uni-President Chain Store has simultaneously advanced "front-end service upgrades" and "future store model experiments." Both approach from different angles, but the core goal is to reduce labor burden and enhance operational efficiency through AI.
FamilyMart stated that since 2022, it has introduced an "AI Fresh Food Ordering Suggestion System" at its stores. Through AI analysis of past sales records, weather, and other data, it automatically calculates suggested inventory levels, helping frontline employees save over 75% of ordering time and effectively reducing fresh food waste by over 10%, thereby alleviating manual operational pressure.
FamilyMart has also promoted an energy management system in approximately 4,400 stores across Taiwan. FamilyMart stated that, taking refrigeration equipment as an example, by automatically detecting and initiating defrosting functions through AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things), it has been applied to 1,600 pieces of equipment, saving nearly 1.5 million kWh of electricity annually. Smart temperature control can also reduce the frequency of compressor startups, saving about 10% of electricity consumption, thereby reducing manual operation requirements and improving operational efficiency.
In terms of back-end support, FamilyMart stated that it promotes AI applications in various daily tasks. Customer service personnel can instantly handle a large number of consumer inquiries through the AI system, improving response speed and accuracy. This year, two more AI tools were introduced: "Store Manager AI Assistant" and "Employee AI Assistant."
The Store Manager AI Assistant can instantly answer store operational questions; the Employee AI Assistant can help employees quickly resolve questions regarding human resources administration, attendance, and personnel regulations, making information acquisition more immediate and communication more efficient.
Unlike FamilyMart, which focuses on back-end and operational process optimization, Uni-President Chain Store extends its AI applications to front-end consumer scenarios and store innovation.
Uni-President Chain Store pointed out that in recent years, stores have gradually introduced intelligent equipment and labor-saving services. Currently, all stores in Taiwan have introduced the "AI Ordering System," allowing store employees to use AI algorithms to quickly predict product sales, meeting ordering and replenishment needs, reducing approximately 365 hours of working time per store per year, significantly shortening operation time.
Last year, Uni-President Chain Store opened the "X-STORE" unmanned store on a university campus, realizing a "grab-and-go" shopping experience for future convenience stores. It adopts a composite AI image tracking and recognition technology developed in cooperation with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which can instantly grasp the movement trajectories of entrants and the actions of picking up and putting down goods. Coupled with mobile self-checkout, consumers automatically complete checkout when leaving the store, without needing to scan barcodes or queue throughout the process.
Uni-President Chain Store pointed out that this unmanned store combines Taiwan's first "micro-warehouse" and collaborates with partners for hardware construction, interface design, and system integration, introducing AI and IoT algorithm technologies. It focuses on "small footprint, large capacity" parcel storage management, capable of efficiently storing over a hundred parcels in a limited space. (Editor: Chang Liang-chih) 1150502
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(Central News Agency reporter Ho Hsiu-ling, Taipei, 2nd) Under the dual pressures of labor shortages and operating costs, convenience stores are entering a new round of channel competition. Uni-President Chain Store and FamilyMart are accelerating the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI), comprehensively digitizing everything from ordering and equipment management to store services. AI has upgraded from an auxiliary tool to a core battlefield for channel competition, hoping to reduce waste, shorten working hours, and improve operational efficiency.
Observing the layouts of the two major convenience stores, FamilyMart has focused on "optimizing internal operational efficiency" in recent years, while Uni-President Chain Store has simultaneously advanced "front-end service upgrades" and "future store model experiments." Both approach from different angles, but the core goal is to reduce labor burden and enhance operational efficiency through AI.
FamilyMart stated that since 2022, it has introduced an "AI Fresh Food Ordering Suggestion System" at its stores. Through AI analysis of past sales records, weather, and other data, it automatically calculates suggested inventory levels, helping frontline employees save over 75% of ordering time and effectively reducing fresh food waste by over 10%, thereby alleviating manual operational pressure.
FamilyMart has also promoted an energy management system in approximately 4,400 stores across Taiwan. FamilyMart stated that, taking refrigeration equipment as an example, by automatically detecting and initiating defrosting functions through AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things), it has been applied to 1,600 pieces of equipment, saving nearly 1.5 million kWh of electricity annually. Smart temperature control can also reduce the frequency of compressor startups, saving about 10% of electricity consumption, thereby reducing manual operation requirements and improving operational efficiency.
In terms of back-end support, FamilyMart stated that it promotes AI applications in various daily tasks. Customer service personnel can instantly handle a large number of consumer inquiries through the AI system, improving response speed and accuracy. This year, two more AI tools were introduced: "Store Manager AI Assistant" and "Employee AI Assistant."
The Store Manager AI Assistant can instantly answer store operational questions; the Employee AI Assistant can help employees quickly resolve questions regarding human resources administration, attendance, and personnel regulations, making information acquisition more immediate and communication more efficient.
Unlike FamilyMart, which focuses on back-end and operational process optimization, Uni-President Chain Store extends its AI applications to front-end consumer scenarios and store innovation.
Uni-President Chain Store pointed out that in recent years, stores have gradually introduced intelligent equipment and labor-saving services. Currently, all stores in Taiwan have introduced the "AI Ordering System," allowing store employees to use AI algorithms to quickly predict product sales, meeting ordering and replenishment needs, reducing approximately 365 hours of working time per store per year, significantly shortening operation time.
Last year, Uni-President Chain Store opened the "X-STORE" unmanned store on a university campus, realizing a "grab-and-go" shopping experience for future convenience stores. It adopts a composite AI image tracking and recognition technology developed in cooperation with the Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI), which can instantly grasp the movement trajectories of entrants and the actions of picking up and putting down goods. Coupled with mobile self-checkout, consumers automatically complete checkout when leaving the store, without needing to scan barcodes or queue throughout the process.
Uni-President Chain Store pointed out that this unmanned store combines Taiwan's first "micro-warehouse" and collaborates with partners for hardware construction, interface design, and system integration, introducing AI and IoT algorithm technologies. It focuses on "small footprint, large capacity" parcel storage management, capable of efficiently storing over a hundred parcels in a limited space. (Editor: Chang Liang-chih) 1150502
Stand with facts, every sponsorship you make is a force to protect press freedom.
Download the Central News Agency "First-hand News" APP to get the latest news instantly.
The text, images, and videos on this website may not be reproduced, publicly broadcast, or publicly transmitted and used without authorization.