Why it’s time to end the grim march of the touchscreen

Click HERE

Kiosks never forget to upsell with sides, meal deals and targeted promotions

customers often prefer the ease and speed of touchscreens. Whizzing through people-free passport checks after a long flight is a joy. I watch in awe at stores such as Uniqlo, where you drop a T-shirt into a tray that somehow instantly knows exactly what you’re buying and what it costs.

Seven years ago, the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo introduced a slower so-called chat checkout to let customers take their time and talk with cashiers. It proved so popular the company decided to expand it to around 200 stores, especially in places where loneliness was a big problem.

About one in six people worldwide suffers social isolation and loneliness, which cause health problems similar to what you get from smoking up to 15 cigarettes a day

software engineers were starting to report a “huge morale problem”, not because they feared being replaced by AI, but because they were increasingly lonely. Instead of asking colleagues for help, they were asking AI, and felt ever more disconnected as a result.

Qn: To what extent is technology an effective solution for human loneliness? (RVHS Prelim 2025)