11/7/2019 10 Present and Future Use Cases of Artificial intelligence in the retail market

10 Present and Future Use Cases of

Arti cial intelligence in the retail
market
venkat k
Nov 7 · 2 min read

Artificial intelligence in the retail sector is being applied in new ways, from the entire
product and service cycle to assembly-to-post customer service interactions, but the key
questions for retail players are:

What AI apps play a role in the automation or growth of the retail process? How are
retail companies today using this technology to stay ahead of their competitors, and
what innovations are posed as potential retail game-changers over the next decade?

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11/7/2019 10 Present and Future Use Cases of Artificial intelligence in the retail market

In this article, we cover various examples of integrating AI into the retail industry,
divided into the following sub-categories:

1.Sales and CRM applications

2.Customer Recommendations
3.Manufacturing
4.Logistics and Delivery
5.Payments and payment services
Innovation is a double-edged sword, and like any innovation, the results are a mixed
bag. Many AI applications have yielded increased ROI — this case study of AI in the
retail marketing sector is an example — while others have failed and failed to meet
expectations, such innovations shed light on the obstacles that must be overcome before
becoming industry drivers.

Below are 10 brief use cases in five retail domains or stages. How AI technologies are
used today and are being created and piloted as retail industry standards in eCommerce
and brick-and-mortar operations.

Readers can find additional insights into the retail space recently covered in our report
on business intelligence.

AI in Retail — Concluding Remarks

Applications that have the highest likelihood of broader retail adoption are those that
have a direct, hard-line return on investment. “Improving customer engagement” —
even with case studies and examples — is a softer benefit than “reducing lost packages
by 6–10%.” Our retail executive guests using AI expect that the relatively stodgy
committees in these large companies are likely to be extremely critical, safe, and bottom-
line focused.

As with many areas of AI innovation that are led by bigger industry players, the future
will likely be dictated by the retail AI use-cases that are proven effective by leading
industry players. It’s safe to say that every at-scale retailer in the world is looking to
Amazon for hints on “next steps,” and we can expect that the broad swath of relatively
smaller retailers will be looking at Amazon, Walmart, Best Buy, and others for their own
ideas on strategy.

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11/7/2019 10 Present and Future Use Cases of Artificial intelligence in the retail market

We advise businesspeople interested in retail AI applications to look closely for

successful traction in AI use cases (i.e. applications that actually drive profitability for
the firm, not flashy R&D projects) from Amazon and other large players over the coming
18 months.

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