Artificial intelligence and machine learning are changing the way retail works as it creates knowledge out of data that retailers can turn into action.
Sixty-five percent of decision makers at retail companies and organisations said AI and ML are mission-critical technologies, according to a survey sponsored by Rackspace Technology.
The technologies provide an opportunity to enhance customer experiences, improve revenue growth potential, undertake rapid innovation and create smart operations – all of which can help businesses to stand out from the competition.
Fifty-eight percent of respondents in the retail space said AI and ML technologies are a high priority for their industry.
Sixty-nine percent reported AI and ML had a positive impact on brand awareness and on brand reputation (67 percent), as well as on revenue generation (72 percent) and on expense reduction (72 percent).
Meanwhile, 75 percent of respondents in retail say they are employing AI and ML as part of their business strategy, IT strategy or both.
Some 68 percent of retail respondents are allocating between 6 percent and 10 percent of their budget to AI and ML projects.
The technology is being used by retailers in an increasingly wide variety of contexts, including improving the speed and efficiency of processes (47 percent), personalising content and understanding customers (43 percent), increasing revenue (41 percent), gaining competitive edge (42 percent) and predicting performance (32 percent), and understanding marketing effectiveness (42 percent).
In an indication of the increasing maturity of the technologies, 66 percent of retail respondents said their AI/ML projects have gone past the experimentation stage and are now either in the “optimising/innovating” or “formalising” states of implementation.
There are however challenges when it comes to AI and ML adoption. Thirty-four percent of retail respondents cite difficulties aligning AI and ML strategies to the business.
From a talent perspective, more than half 61 percent of retail respondents said they have necessary AI and ML skills within their organisation.
At the same time, more than half of all respondents say that bolstering internal skills, hiring talent and improving both internal and external training are on their agenda.
Comparing departments, 69 percent of retail respondents say IT staff grasp AI and ML benefits while 46 percent in sales, 45 percent in R&D, 44 percent in senior management and boards, 41 percent in customer service and operations and only 34 percent in marketing departments understand the benefits of these technologies.
