Taobao’s AI-enabled deliveries help close pay gap for deaf couriers
A simple AI tool reduced the discrepancy in hourly pay by roughly a third.
China’s leading online delivery platform, Taobao Instant Commerce, processes an astounding 40 million orders daily. However, coordinating the final delivery can pose a challenge for couriers who are deaf or hard of hearing, as they must often call customers on the phone to arrange a meeting. This hurdle has a tangible economic consequence: studies conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto, UC Santa Barbara, and Zhejiang University revealed that deaf and hard-of-hearing couriers earn 10% less per hour compared to their hearing colleagues.
Additionally, these couriers received lower customer ratings and had a higher likelihood of making late deliveries.
Faced with the need to narrow this pay gap, three Taobao engineers, in their free time, devised a solution. They developed a straightforward accessibility feature that enables these couriers to choose pre-set messages or compose their own, which the AI tool then calls the customer to read aloud. Estimates suggest that this tool has nearly halved the hourly pay gap, while also improving delivery times and customer ratings. Workers with more severe hearing loss experienced the most significant improvements.
This feature is part of a larger initiative in China to promote accessibility, with businesses mandated to allocate at least 1.5% of their job opportunities to individuals with disabilities. Following Taobao’s lead, rival company Meituan also introduced a similar AI calling feature.
Written by urgent.news from Semafor's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
