◆ First to Market · 2024 Award Winner

Open the door. Take what you want. Walk away.

Camera-based, touchless AI machines that charge automatically when you close the door. The same machines on Dartmouth's campus — now available to every operator.

11 Models
$3,395.00 Starting at
4.9★ Avg. Rating
AI Smart Machines ×
11 machines
How camera-based AI vending works
1

Tap your card

Tap a card, phone, or campus ID at the reader. The door unlocks. No menu, no buttons, no PIN.

~1 second
2

Open. Grab. Go.

Open the door, take whatever you want — drinks, snacks, sandwiches, OTC meds. Cameras inside watch what you remove.

~3 seconds
3

Auto-charge on close

Close the door. The AI tallies what's missing and charges your card. Receipt by text or email. Done.

~2 seconds
Side by Side

ARK vs Ambient vs VRK

Smart Shop ARK
Camera · refrigerated
Smart Shop Ambient
Camera · ambient
Smart Shop VRK
Camera · XL refrig
Refrigerated ✓ — ✓ XL
SKU capacity ~120 ~80 ~200
Camera-based AI ✓ ✓ ✓
Tap / mobile / campus card ✓ ✓ ✓
Best for drinks ✓ — ✓
Best for snacks ✓ ✓ ✓
Fresh food / sandwiches ✓ — ✓
Narcan / OTC / specialty — ✓ —
Footprint Single cabinet Single cabinet Wide cabinet
Best for Mid-traffic floors Specialty / healthcare Campus dining halls
Price $11,995 $9,495 $12,995
Dartmouth bought 100. Then they bought more.
Operator Story

Dartmouth bought 100. Then they bought more.

Dartmouth's auxiliary services team picked Smart Shop AI for the entire campus rollout — drinks, fresh food, late-night essentials, OTC meds at the student health center. The reorder happened in 8 months.

100+
Units shipped
8 mo
To reorder
0
Service tickets escalated
"

Students don't tap, swipe, or wait. They open the door, take what they want, and walk away. Adoption was instant — we're already specing the next building.

Director of Auxiliary Services Dartmouth College · 2024 campus rollout
FAQ

AI Smart questions

AI machines use cameras — the customer opens the door, takes items, and walks away. The cameras detect what was removed and charge automatically. Smart machines use a touchscreen and tablet integration where customers browse and select. Dartmouth specifically chose our camera-based AI lineup; touchscreen Smart works better for higher-margin or lower-trust environments where you want a confirmation step.
99.4%+ in production environments. Multi-camera coverage, RFID tagging on high-value items, and a manual review queue for the rare ambiguous cases. We've seen total shrink under 1% across the deployed Dartmouth fleet.
Yes — Blackboard Transact, CBORD, Atrium, Heartland OneCard, and most major campus card systems. Meal plan dollars and dining points both supported. We handle the integration during install.
Smart Shop Ambient is the right pick. It's already deployed at major universities for Narcan/overdose kits, OTC medications, PPE, and convenience items. The ambient (non-refrigerated) cabinet is configurable for any specialty inventory your student health center or facilities team needs.
The machine queues transactions locally and syncs when connectivity returns. Customers don't get locked out. We also support cellular failover (LTE) as an option for sites with unreliable WiFi.

Want a more traditional setup?

AI Smart is the future, but combination, snack, and drink machines still earn their keep. Compare options:

Combination machines Snack machines Glass front drink Talk to an expert →