The Cork company planning for shops without tills

Cork AI firm Everseen's checkout technology helps retailers avoid billions in losses. Its CEO speaks about the future

Alan O'Herlihy, CEO of Everseen, which is headquartered in Blackpool, Cork. The company works with 14 of the world's top-25 retailers. Picture: Denis Minihane

Having become a market leader in the US, Cork artificial-intelligence firm Everseen is planning  to expand into Europe and Asia over the next two years and grow by a factor of 10.

From its headquarters in Blackpool, and through research centres in Timisoara, in Romania, and Belgrade, Serbia, Everseen has developed video-camera technology that monitors self-service checkouts for items that were not scanned, thus reducing errors and thefts. Such errors and thefts cost retailers up to €40bn each year.

The social distancing required by Covid-19 and the surge in grocery shopping because of lockdowns have resulted in a boom in business for the firm, which was founded by Alan O'Herlihy, from Glenville, more than 10 years ago. 

The company is now a major player in the artificial-intelligence sector, which has almost endless possibilities.

At the start of 2020, Everseen was working with six of the top 10 global retailers. Today, Everseen  works with 14 of the top 25 retailers, with plans to grow further. 

Speaking to the Irish Examiner, Mr O'Herlihy,  the company's CEO,  is reluctant to name clients, but it is well known they include US retail giants Walmart and Kroger.

"In 2019, we had a few customers and, in 2020, we jumped to many customers," Mr O'Herlihy said. 

"We grew to thousands of stores. As a company, we don't have a dependence on one customer. The plan is to diversify our product and customer base." 

"It has been a terrible year for everyone. We are able to play a part, because the self-checkout became so important for so many retailers."

Everseen's technology has helped some stores to drastically reduce the number of interactions staff have with customers. The technology observes millions of items and customers every day, reducing friction and delays. 

"People were being stopped 25% of the time, but we managed to rescue that to 2%, in some cases," Mr O'Herlihy says. "So that was a huge improvement, both for the client, but also letting customers through faster."

Cork company Everseen have been testing its cashier-less shop on French Church Street, which is set to open to the public early next year.

Everseen is now a dominant player in its sector. "We are the market leader, in terms of managing checkouts through computer vision. There is no one else scaled like us," Mr O'Herlihy said.

Capitalising on its position, Everseen plans to open an office in Paris, targeting the major retailers in France and across Europe. Asia is also on the horizon, with plans for a significant presence there in 2021. Also this year, a thrift research centre is to be located in Barcelona.

Mr O'Herlihy is clear that while headquartered in Cork, Everseen is truly a global company. "We have 24 staff in Cork, likely growing to 40 this year. We have 180 in Romania, 50 in Belgrade, and will have 50 in the US."

Ireland's population means it can be difficult to establish large technology research centres here. "We are very good at the deep, deep research here, at places like Tyndall, but it would be a challenge for an Irish tech company to go to 200 people in deep tech – that's very difficult. You would get it to 20 or 30 people to get the best to take on competitors."

While planning to expand its client base, the firm also sees the potential of AI in other areas.

"We are taking our technology beyond the US and beyond the checkout," Mr O'Herlihy said. "We are managing the important sales process for retailers, but are now going to the back of the store, managing the receiving section, and, in the distribution centres, managing any critical process. Retailers are trusting us to solve problems."

"Checkouts are a big issue, but our customers are dragging us to other areas, asking to help resolve issues. That's where our business is growing."

With the customer level of interaction with staff reducing all the time, Mr O'Herlihy predicts that fully cashier-free shops are just a few years away. "You will likely see it in the smaller stores first, the kiosks and newsagents in airports. That is happening already."

In 2017, Everseen established a cashier-free shop on Cork's French Church Street, to test its own system. It used cameras to monitor what customers took from the shelves, rather than scan items at a till. "It's a bit like the BMW concept car. It may not go into production, but you learn a lot," he says.

Other players, like retail giant Amazon, are racing into the sector, establishing and testing stores without cashiers. However, while Everseen is ready to compete in that area, the company is happy to focus on its current technologies and verticals.

"At this stage, no one knows where that sector is going to land," Mr O'Herlihy said. 

"Everseen can do that technology right now and we are ready for that when the market is ready for that. We have proven it at scale, but the volume isn't there to adopt it yet."