Unlocking AI's Transformative Power in Retail with Expert Scott Benedict

This episode explores the transformative impact of artificial intelligence on the retail industry, highlighting how AI can enhance customer experiences, optimize supply chains, and drive data-driven insights. Key topics include personalization strategies, customer service improvements, and best practices for tech investments.

• Exploring the role of AI in customer data analysis 
• Insights into personalization techniques across touchpoints 
• Importance of AI in optimizing supply chain operations 
• Enhancing store layouts through consumer behavior analytics 
• The evolution of customer service with AI technologies 
• Recommended approaches for tech investment strategies

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:09

Hello everyone, I've been thinking and reading a lot recently about the positive impact of technology on the retailing industry and, more specifically, about the impact of artificial intelligence, or AI. Ai can bring immense value to a retailer by enabling data-driven insights, by enhancing operational efficiency and by improving customer experiences, just to name a few areas of benefit. However, there are so many perspectives on how AI should be deployed in a modern retail business. It can be a bit of a daunting task to figure out where to start for many leaders in our industry, and here's a few thoughts of areas where I believe AI can be applied today and be applied very effectively in the context of modern retailing. Start with customer data analysis and insights, and really we have so much data available to us as retailers and as consumer brands that being able to glean very important insights or forecast future elements of the business, it's a bit of a daunting task to cover it all. So areas like customer analytics, forecasting demand for products and market research are just some of the areas where AI-based solutions are already available in the marketplace. Now personalization is another area, and we tend to think of personalization in the terms of strictly online experiences. The fact is that targeted marketing campaigns across different touch points or different mediums can be optimized through the use of AI technology, as can product recommendations, both on a website and through marketing contacts, the ability to enable solution selling In other words, don't just recommend individual products, but a bundle of products that solve a challenge or a problem a customer are having. It's one of the areas made more efficient and effective with AI technology In the operation of a retail business.

Speaker 1: 2:19

Optimizing supply chain at various stages, from factory to store shelves, can also be improved with existing AI technology and the ability to optimize the layout of individual stores, to study consumer behavior, shopper behavior while they're traversing through a store and then continue to refine that layout. There are solutions for that out there today. Then, one of the biggest areas and one of the first areas where AI has really had a major impact has been in customer service and the use of things like chatbots to provide solutions for customers 24 hours a day, as well as over time, analyzing consumer sentiment, looking at ratings and reviews. That helps retailers understand not only where they can improve their product selection, but also improve their service over the course of time. Now, the fact is, that's just a partial listing, to be sure, and it will need to be updated by retailers regularly.

Speaker 1: 3:19

I would consider it a best practice, however, to continually review tech investments by the areas of the business that you are seeking to impact and by how much there are already lower investment, higher return elements of AI technology available to retail enterprises today. My recommendation is try a crawl walk run approach to investing in technology, but by all means start your firm's journey as quickly as you can. It's okay to revise your approach as you go and as new technology innovations become available. However, sitting on the sidelines and waiting to see what happens next can be deadly in retailing. That's what I've been thinking about. I'm Scott Benedict, thanks.