Sentient Technologies, which was founded by the developers of the natural language technology that evolved into Apple's Siri, has said that artificial intelligence is likely to transform the retail environment.'
Every decision that needs to be made is a “potential use” for AI, says Jonathan Epstein, CMO of the world's largest AI company, which can help retailers make better decisions and quicker decisions with less cost.
“The most interesting AI product I saw recently was the product of Focal Systems - a hardware/software combination, which mounts on shopping carts and is able to scan shelves, using AI to understand what it is seeing and instantly identifying which products need restocking,” Epstein tells ESM.
“While we’ve seen robots that can move around stores and operate similarly, this ‘shopping cart swarm’ approach offers a much lower cost of entry than dedicated robots and also delivers other key insights on how users are travelling through the store.”
As more and more companies turn to AI to help optimise their touchpoints with their shoppers, the benefits can go well beyond increased sales and/or conversion rates, says Epstein, pointing to the company's work with an online grocer that has "great revenue growth but negative margins".
The company will work with this retailer "not to optimise revenues per se, but to optimise basket size, to reduce the percentage cost of fulfilment, therefore increasing profitability. If you can clearly state your business problem, and the goal you achieve – there’s likely an AI product that can help you get there.”
© 2017 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Angela Coyle. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine.
