8Kava Labs Research
Technology
How the sensors, models and payment rails behind unattended retail actually work, including where they fail.
Designing Unattended Checkout: Pre-Auth, Declines, Badges and Subsidies
At a smart cooler, the shopper taps before anyone knows what the bill will be. Pre-auth amounts, offline rules, decline messages and subsidy caps decide whether checkout feels invisible or turns into a support ticket.
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AI Agents in Vending Operations: What's Real in 2026 and How to Design the Approvals
Much of the AI in vending software today is a chat box on a dashboard: ask a question, get an answer, then do the work yourself. An agent does the work. That's where the savings start, and so do the design problems.
Vending Demand Forecasting Beyond Moving Averages: What Breaks and What Works
The most common vending forecast is a par level refreshed from the last few weeks of sales. That works when demand is steady and nothing sells out. Vending has neither. Here's what breaks, and what to use instead.
Computer Vision vs. Weight Sensors vs. RFID: How Smart Coolers Know What You Took
A smart cooler has about 10 seconds after the door closes to answer one question: what left the shelf? RFID, weight sensors and computer vision answer it differently, and each one fails in its own way.
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