Amazon is introducing a new QR-code-based augmented reality (AR) experience to help bring interactive and shared experiences for a mobile user, according to Apple’s App Store listing.
The way the app works, the store listing says, is for one to download the app, point the camera at a QR code on an Amazon box and “immerse yourself in augmented reality.”
According to the listing, the augmented reality feature is “a fun way to reuse your Amazon boxes until you’re ready to drop them in the recycling bin.”
The app will access a user’s camera to digitally render content and create illusions of products and objects in the physical environment.
According to the company, users whose devices support TrueDevice technology will let the camera track facial movements to allow some features like “selfie mode,” the release says. Amazon says that any information is stored solely on the user’s device and is not used by Amazon for any other purpose.
QR codes have been booming since the pandemic started earlier this year, with the form of payment becoming so ingrained in some cultures that Chinese panhandlers have begun asking passersby for QR code scans in replacement for cash as ways to buy things, PYMNTS reports.
But the form of payment hasn’t been wholly adopted in the U.S. thus far, with the country’s mobile providers like Apple having mostly avoided the idea. And Americans’ interest in payments seems to be content with cards and had not been looking for updates to that format.
That said, the coronavirus pandemic has shifted people’s preferences toward more digital forms of payment, PYMNTS writes, and American shoppers might be fine with sticking with digital payments for the near future.
Around 57 percent of consumers in a recent survey said they pick where to shop based on the payment operations offered, with contactless payments becoming of particular note during the pandemic.
Accenture disclosed Thursday (March 20) that it has lost sales and revenue in its Accenture Federal Services business unit and faces continuing uncertainty due to the Trump administration’s efforts to operate the government more efficiently.
Speaking during the global professional services organization’s quarterly earnings call, Accenture Chair and CEO Julie Sweet said that in fiscal year 2024, Accenture Federal Services accounted for 8% of the company’s global revenue and 16% of its Americas revenue, according to a transcript posted by the company.
“As you know, the new administration has a clear goal to run the federal government more efficiently,” Sweet said during the call. “During this process, many new procurement actions have slowed, which is negatively impacting our sales and revenue.”
Accenture Federal Services is the company’s subsidiary focused on federal services like national security, defense, safety, civilian, and public and military health, according to the company’s website.
Sweet added during the call that the General Services Administration has instructed all federal agencies to review their contracts with the 10 highest-paid consulting firms contracting with the U.S. government — a group that includes Accenture Federal Services — and terminate the contracts that the agencies determine to be not mission critical.
“While we continue to believe our work for federal clients is mission critical, we anticipate ongoing uncertainty as the government’s priorities evolve and these assessments unfold,” Sweet said during the call.
At the same time, with Accenture’s experience with federal and commercial clients, the company sees opportunities for it to help the federal government achieve efficiency, Sweet said.
“When you think about the Americas and the agenda now in federal with respect to consolidating, modernizing and reinventing the federal government, we’re incredibly well positioned because we’ve been driving already a lot of efficiency in the federal government with the work we’ve been doing for decades,” Sweet said during the call.
President Donald Trump issued an executive order on Jan. 20 — the first day of his current term in office — creating a Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and tasking it with boosting efficiency and productivity within the federal government.
“This Executive Order establishes the Department of Government Efficiency to implement the President’s DOGE Agenda, by modernizing Federal technology and software to maximize governmental efficiency and productivity,” Trump wrote in the order.
