Automation and AI both play an ever increasingly important role in the world of retail, as in the worlds of so many other industries. There are a range of benefits to utilizing these modern technologies, benefits which are not contained to the companies themselves but even to the customers and customers of the future. That being said, the technology sector can sometimes move in the shadow, obscured from the view of an average person. This information buffer can lead to misunderstandings about fields which are actually extremely important and relevant today.
So, with that said, here are a few pieces of information about the role played by automation and AI-powered predictions in retail.
Market Trends
It’s actually a quite well-established fact but computers are the first-choice option for retail companies looking to find out facts about their market and their past, present and future customers. And when we say computers, we are specifically talking about computers capable of AI-powered machine learning. Machine learning is hugely impactful. It allows a computer, through a process similar to that of a young child, to be fed information…vast data sets, and to learn from that data. The computer learns to spot trends in the data which it then remembers for the next data set it encounters and the next and the next. The end result is that a retail company can discover trends through their computer learning and capitalize on them. For example, they might discover that a certain type of coat is requested frequently in online searches in Montana, and so the company will adapt to that demand. Ai-powered machine learning can learn enormous amounts of data in a short amount of time and through automation it can make changes to the way it scans the data it is sent resulting in more accurate and more specific trends for their clients.
Customer Interaction
Not all machine learning AI work is done as behind the scenes as that though. Many companies have actually adopted AI to interact with customers directly, particularly in online stores. There’s a new market for automated chat bots who are able to give solutions quickly. It makes a lot of sense that, when a shopper runs into uncertainty online, they will want help and since it is expensive and space-consuming to have a team of customer relations experts waiting to answer online questions from customers, it is much more preferable to simply have a chat bot of sorts handle the queries. In fact, chat bots are so advanced they can make predictions and suggestions, based on keywords and phrases selected directly from the customers themselves, of what a customer will most like to purchase. The whole conversation is brief and inexpensive and much more likely to result in customer satisfaction.
Augmented Reality
This is a fun one. AR has seen an enormous growth over the last decade, with all sorts of new apps and programs designed to capture people with this new, exciting technology. The idea hinges on the fact that the average customer will likely have a phone in their pocket with a camera on the front of it. This means that companies can develop apps where a user will have entered various details about themselves and the app will factor those in to project an image of a product into the ‘real world’ of the customer’s home or the shop itself. For example, if you wanted to try on clothing but couldn’t reach a store, or you wanted to see if a certain piece of furniture sitting where it will actually go in your house you can see it projected there. What is more, with in shop AR, AI can help generated the sales and specific prices for items that a customer has expressed interest in and map them over the screen, guiding the user to where they can find what they are looking for.
Conclusion
So, as you can see, these advanced elements of technology are already integral to the retail customer experience. It allows company owners to present the perfectly predicted future as a present reality and, through integration, can blend market data with automation and AI to turn out a satisfying and quick customer experience, online or in store.
Grace Carter is a tech editor and writer at Assignment help Australia and WriteMyAustralia services. She reviews latest gadgets, writes about economics and trends in AI. Also, Grace teaches business writing at OXEssays academic website.