Could Generative AI power the next Deliveroo?

‘Virtually every disrupting organization has solved a pain point in the customer experience’ – that was the view of Bob Hetu of Gartner back in 2017.

It’s difficult to argue with that perspective – Uber meant you no longer needed to eye the taxi-meter - contrasting with the amount of cash in your purse or wallet; Airbnb eases your accommodation search; and companies like Deliveroo and Just Eat solved the pain of needing to go out to collect take-away food.

Since the beginning of 2023, much has been written about ChatGPT – it took around 2 months for it to reach 100 million users – that is 15 times faster than it took Instagram.

As early as December 2022, McKinsey were writing about how Generative AI would change business – listing use cases where businesses could use Generative AI to their benefit. By the end of January barely a day went by where Generative AI – usually ChatGPT – was not mentioned in the media.

Organisations are investing significant time attempting to determine the best ways to apply Generative AI in their business. But one thing they may not be thinking about is how this could change their competitive landscape, what new business models may appear – and how they might benefit.

Deliveroo and Just Eat can be thought of as ‘food service aggregators’ – they allow you access to multiple different food vendors through the same channel. Airbnb and Uber are similar in that they provide access to accommodation and transportation from multiple providers – without owning the assets themselves.

Generative AI represents an opportunity for new ‘concierge ecosystems’ business models to appear. 

While there are Generative AI concepts around ‘recipe suggestion to shopping list’ or suggestions of what to wear, bringing these together across different providers could be the next step.

What if you, as a consumer, had an assistant to help you plan a party – find something for you to wear, organise food and drink and send invitations. Or perhaps you could ask an assistant to find you a dinner reservation and arrange a taxi to take you and bring you home?

For many consumers this could be highly compelling – solving multiple pains in the customer experience – perhaps pains they had not considered!!  This is something Generative AI could address.

So how to benefit if you are a retailer? The answer is likely to lie in ecosystem participation.

Bain have predicted that retail ecosystems will become an important part of the retail landscape in the years ahead’. Many retailers are already good at this – selling other retailer’s merchandise or making their products available on Deliveroo or other platforms is already good practice. 

But those who are not ought to give it some more thought – the next Deliveroo or Just Eat will not be solving a simple customer experience pain by delivering food – it will be solving complex problems for consumers – those which require orchestration across multiple players.

Generative AI is likely to usher in multiple new business models - and with them lie both threats and opportunities. In their work on ecosystems, Bain have highlighted how ecosystem participation may limit a retailer’s ability to set prices and the consumer experience – which suggests there could be value in becoming the ecosystem orchestrator – giving you the power.

Ten years ago, few would have predicted how significant the likes of Deliveroo and Just Eat would become. Concierge ecosystems could be a significant new area – solving multiple customer experience pains at once. This is going to a fascinating area to watch.