In order to adjust to shifting consumer behaviour, improve employee skills, and increase customer efficiency, retailers are now aiming to implement automation and artificial intelligence (AI) more widely throughout their operations.
According to Honeywell’s AI in Retail Survey, retailers are spending more money on AI to solve the main problems they encounter in the fast-paced, omni-channel environment of today. These problems include better return management, automated customer support, and product availability tracking.
Retailers are utilising AI to boost employees’ abilities and work experience, according to the report. More than half of the retail executives the business polled stated that AI increases employee retention, and 52 per cent think it can help workers advance in their careers more rapidly, develop their soft skills, and consistently add value to their positions.
55 per cent of retail executives stated that AI technologies improve job satisfaction, while almost 60 per cent of them stated that they make employees’ jobs easier. Additionally, AI is becoming more and more significant in enhancing the in-person and online buying experiences for consumers. Customers may benefit from faster transactions, quicker pricing comparison, and improved information availability.
According to its consumer survey, 66 per cent of respondents said they have used artificial intelligence (AI) when shopping, whether it was to summarise customer reviews, compare costs for an item among retailers, or ask a question via a chatbot.
Furthermore, over 80 per cent of businesses are either adopting or piloting initiatives in retail and consumer packaged products, according to the most recent NVIDIA Survey. According to over half of retailers, Gen AI is a key technology that will set them apart from the competition.
Digital shopping assistants or copilots, consumer research and segmentation, personalised marketing and advertising, predictive analysis, and content creation for marketing are the top applications of Gen AI in retail, according to the report. Additionally, it claims that over 50 per cent of retailers employ AI in more than six different use cases throughout their operations, demonstrating how the technology has spread to almost every aspect of retail business.
According to the survey, analytics and insights, adaptive advertising, and inventory management are the top three use cases in physical retailers. They are the production of marketing and advertising content as well as hyper-individualised suggestions for digital retail.
