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How Continente Bom Dia operationalised AI-native stores as a core business strategy with Sensei

Overview

Milestone after milestone, Sensei continues to push the boundaries of retail innovation, this time opening, with 1200 m2, the largest autonomous supermarket - in the world.

Client

Continente Bom Dia

Brand

Industry

Supermarkets

Solution

Store

Location

Leiria, Portugal

Opening date

January 2025

Autonomous transactions

>70%

Decrease in shopping time

22.7 min

Bom Dia network

Top 10

The business drivers behind Continente Bom Dia’s AI-native store

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Sonae is one of Portugal’s largest and most influential business groups, with operations spanning retail, telecommunications, technology, and financial services. At the heart of its retail division is MC Sonae, the force behind Continente, Portugal’s most recognized grocery brand.

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From large hypermarkets to proximity supermarkets like Continente Bom Dia, the brand has built trust through everyday accessibility and forward-looking innovation. But as consumer expectations rose and store formats became more compact, the pressure on operations intensified. Store teams were juggling a growing list of responsibilities, including managing stock, assisting customers, handling checkouts, restocking shelves, and maintaining store cleanliness and compliance, often with fewer available staff.

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So when the Continente Bom Dia team set out to explore autonomous retail, the goal wasn’t to wow with tech. It was to solve real problems in a real store, for real people.

“We didn’t want to create a futuristic experience,” said Amaro Amaral, general manager at Continente Bom Dia. “We wanted to build a better store, one that could operate every day, serve thousands of people, and still feel like a natural part of the neighbourhood.”

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Transforming retail without touching the journey

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The market was full of high-tech autonomous retail pilots. However, most required behavioural change, such as downloading apps, scanning gates, or following instructions. The Continente Bom Dia team wanted to prove that innovation didn’t have to disrupt familiar behaviour. If anything, it should disappear into the background. More importantly, they aimed to show that it could be done without the common limitations of many autonomous store models such as excluding assisted counters, selling loose fruit and vegetables by weight, accommodating different types of shelving, or displaying products on pallets.

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As Pedro Santos, Head of R&D and innovation at MC Sonae, explained, “We knew that if we were going to bring autonomy into the store, it couldn’t get in the way. No app downloads. No barriers at the entrance. No instructions. It had to just work, from the very first visit.”

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The ambition was clear: launch a fully autonomous store that looked, felt, and functioned like any other. It had to support fresh service counters, accommodate high traffic, and be robust enough for daily use. And critically, it had to be scalable, not a one-off pilot, but a working model for the future of the grocery industry.

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“We wanted a partner who could handle real-world complexity and still make things easier for our teams and our customers. That’s what we found in Sensei.”

Amaro Amaral

General Manager Continente Bom Dia

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Invisible technology, visible impact

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In partnership with Sensei, Continente Bom Dia opened a 1,200-square-meter autonomous store in Leiria. On the surface, it resembled any other store in the network. But beneath it was a sophisticated digital foundation powered by artificial intelligence and deep tech.

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Customers can enter freely - no apps, no scanning - and shop as they always have. As they move through the aisles, products are automatically added to a virtual basket. Ultimately, they simply pay and walk out. A digital receipt appears without the need for scanning, queuing, or unloading, and the technology accommodates any type of payment method.

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Amaro emphasised the importance of that simplicity: “You don’t need an app. You don’t need to scan. You just walk in, shop like usual, and walk out. That simplicity was non-negotiable for us, and Sensei made it possible.”

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Despite the advanced technology, the store preserved what customers love about Continente. Fresh counters, bakery zones, and staff support were all intact. The difference was that, behind the scenes, real-time data drove everything, from stock alerts and product analytics to operational workflows.

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“It’s not about replacing people, it’s about giving them better tools,” said Pedro. “With automation handling the repetitive tasks, our staff can spend more time doing what matters: engaging with customers.”

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Built for complexity, designed to scale

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Unlike many early autonomous retail concepts, this store wasn’t designed to impress a boardroom; it was designed to survive a Saturday afternoon rush. Sensei’s platform handled planogram compliance, automating replenishment alerts for staff, measured product interactions and product conversion rates and generated customer movement heatmaps to help optimise layout and promotions.

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“We now have live insights into what’s happening on every shelf,” Pedro explained. “That means we can act immediately to prevent stockouts, optimise layouts, or correct discrepancies before they impact customers.”

What made this different wasn’t just the autonomy; it was how natural the experience felt. The technology worked in the background, allowing customers and staff to operate precisely as they were used to.

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“From the very beginning, we said: this has to work like a real store. No shortcuts,” said Amaro. “And that’s exactly what we got. A solution that supports fresh counters, busy aisles, and all the complexity that comes with real retail.”

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A live store that delivers real results

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This isn’t a controlled test or a short-term showcase. The Continente Bom Dia autonomous store is open daily, operating at full scale, and delivering tangible business results.

It has quickly become one of the top-performing locations in the entire Bom Dia network, proving that autonomous retail doesn’t need to feel experimental; it just needs to work.

Top 10 stores in the Bom Dia network by sales performance
>70% of transactions completed through fully autonomous checkout
22.7 min decrease in average shopping time
9 daily replenishment tasks automatically generated by Sensei system
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“The best feedback we can get,” Amaro shared, “is that most customers don’t even notice the technology. They just shop. That means we’ve done our job right.”

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Operational teams have also seen a shift. With shelf visibility, replenishment is faster and more accurate. Staff are freed from repetitive tasks, allowing them to spend more time on high-impact customer service and store execution.

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“It’s a win-win-win,” said Pedro. “Customers shop faster and easier. Our teams work smarter. And the business gets more reliable, actionable data to grow from.”

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Why Continente chose Sensei

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Continente Bom Dia wasn’t looking for a science project. They needed a partner that understood the realities of day-to-day retail and could deliver a platform flexible enough to scale.

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Sensei offered exactly that: a fully integrated solution with real-time data, human-friendly design, and infrastructure built to support the complexity of grocery operations.

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