Artificial Intelligence in Retail

What is the hottest topic in retail blogs for 2017? Besides the so-called retail apocalypse, it's AI in retail. Read on.

This article was first published on Star Cloud Services, read the long version here.

The Connected Consumer

There is a fairly good reason for this, it's connected to the future of how consumers search, press buttons in apps to get stuff in the real world done and how we connect with services, goods, connected devices, fun experiences, and most of all with each other.

Advances in computer vision and real-time NLP means AI is more actionable, and we are seeing this on the front lines of retail innovation.

AI Can Serve Small Shops and Stores Too

In 2017, even local merchants can upgrade their stores with exceptionally good foot traffic sensors, loyalty marketing retargeting that's basically automated and do ad-tech promos right at the POS basically for free.

Perhaps as Tom Goodwin states, the future of retail pertains to everything being shoppable. Amazon's Alexa devices certainly do seem priced for everyone, their most popular Dot device is currently under $50.00, for less expensive than equivalents from Google Home, Apple's Home Pod or Facebook and Alibaba alternatives.

Mobile and the Voice-First AI Interface

The new consumer who is more experiential and discount off-price orientated is also savvier and connected with new ways of doing local search, product discovery and accessing e-commerce on mobile devices.

This means how younger Millennials and GenZ shoppers want to experience stores and the physical retail brick-and-mortar environment is also changing.

Slicing Inventory, Logistics and Product Discovery Differently

AI is also inviting retailers and e-commerce native companies to showroom their products in the discovery stage of their customer audience and offer speedy delivery with omnichannel efficiency.

We can also witness this in the powerful way AI facilitates product suggestions via algorithms which have developed extremely well over the last few years.

The Cashless Consumer, Localization Intelligence and Proximity Offers

The reinvigoration of QR codes, self-service, and mobile payment options means North American shoppers can increasingly exist without carrying cash or plastic on hand.

While we are still years behind Asia on this, it is most definitely coming as we can witness with digital receipts apps that offer mobile coupons within them.

Targeting Customers in Real-Time

Sending real-time personalized messages don't have to be app-centric either, it could be done via promotions on the receipt at the point of sale itself.

Machine Learning Distributed via the Cloud

Retailers are learning just how many of their operations can be impacted by an increasing array of machine intelligence.

• Product Selection
• Retail and Mobile Payments
• Retail Search
• AI embedded commerce
• Chatbots and personalized customer service
• Supply chain augmentation
• Retail Robotics

RFID and QR Codes are still Secret Weapons

While for some of us RFID and QR codes seem out of date, the opposite holds true. Each of them is on the rise in retail innovation solutions that we've yet to fully encounter at a mainstream level in North American retail.

Artificial Intelligence in Retail Has only Just Begun

While Amazon goes on a hiring spree and as e-commerce evolves, it's really brick and mortar stores where AI has a lot of exciting R&D to make retail experiences even more enjoyable.

As the retail apocalypse trims sectors of department stores, apparel, and malls that no longer sync and are customer-centric, new possibilities are emerging about what retail might become.

To say that artificial intelligence is making the lives of consumers more convenient, easier and better - would be an understatement. CB Insights is treasure trove of companies on the leading edge of AI.

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