Pedersen said it might be the biggest barrier to entry for retailers. “These are capital investments,” he said.
Walmart is among those retailers that are already using AI for several new different customer applications, including chatbots and voice-activated ordering, to name a couple. But one the company touted recently is generative AI-powered search, which uses existing customer data to better understand the intent of a given query and then generate recommendations based on them. This, according to Walmart, will allow customers to search based on a theme, like, for example, “football party.”
Paul Tepfenhart, global director of the retail industry at Google Cloud, told Retail Brew that an in-house survey from the tech giant found that 59% of retailers said customer service represented the biggest opportunity for investment—and this has a lot to do with the fact that customers are tired of more traditional services such as the call center.
David Clarke, customer and digital strategy leader at EY and formerly global chief experience officer at PwC, defined the term more broadly as the personalized management of customer interactions across digital and physical channels, with the goal of increasing both loyalty and revenue. This more open-ended definition captures many of the recent announcements from retailers that are using AI to help overhaul omnichannel interactions with customers.
While recent hype around artificial intelligence has centered around free-to-use chatbots and image generators such as ChatGPT and DALL-E, consumer-facing apps are just the tip of the iceberg. In the retail industry, AI is at the center of an innovation cycle that is transforming how companies manage the customer experience.
Amelia Kinsinger
“These aren’t necessarily only software investments. There are like physical assets in some cases—more advanced cameras in the store, sensor technology...and those are expensive capex in many cases.”
The problem of infastructure
Cleaning up the data
Connected stores
Better search
“Let’s face it; none of us have really enjoyed calling the call center and waiting in long lines and maybe having less-than-fulfilling outcomes.”
By Alex Vuocolo
AI adoption is driving a transformation in how retailers manage the customer experience. Here’s an update on their progress.