While online shopping has taken great strides in recent years, the brick-and-mortar retail hasnt managed to keep pace.
Artificial intelligence now permeates every aspect of ecommerce platforms, especially where customer interactions are involved. Smart product suggestions, AI-powered search, cognitive customer service agents are just some of the innovations that have helped make online shopping more personalized and enjoyable for the customerand more profitable for the retailer of course.
Meanwhile, AI advances in brick-and-mortar retail have mostly remained in inventory management and back store operations. The few innovations that have happened in the customer-facing aspects of in-person retail have little or no AI involved, and have failed to make tangible positive impact in the shopping experience and gain wide adoption.
Fortunately, this is something that is fast changing as technological developments enable retailers to gather in-store data and deploy AI-powered solutions. Artificial intelligence can help fix old problems in retail tech as well as introduce new possibilities that were previously inconceivable. Here are some of the trends that are worth watching.
A few years ago, in-store beacons were supposed to be the biggest thing that happened to brick-and-mortar retail, but didnt live up to its hype. Part of the problem with beacons is that they introduce new complexities without solving the real problems customers are facing. Beacons require customers to install an app that does little more than pop up annoying promotions that in no way rivals the personalized suggestions of online shopping platforms.
Now, retailers are experimenting with a new generation of apps powered by machine learning algorithms, whose value go beyond displaying prices and coupons. IBM Watson, a leader in cognitive computing and natural language processing, has partnered with several large retailers to help them better understand and serve the needs of their customers.
An example is Macys On Call, a mobile web application that uses the Watsons cognitive computing power and location-based software to help shoppers get information while theyre navigating the companys stores. The application is able to parse and understand natural language queries about such things as the location of products, departments and services in a particular store, and it responds in a relevant way. As is with all machine learningbased platforms, every customer interaction makes On Call smarter.
Sears Automotive is using the same technology for its Digital Tire Journey in-store web app, which helps shoppers navigate their way through the stores wide assortment of tires using a conversational interface and find whats best for their needs.
While providing value to customers, these apps are enabling retailers to gather a wealth of customter-related data that can in turn be used to fuel other AI-powered solutions.
Retailers annually lose a collective $45 billion to shrinkage, due to non-scans and other errors occurring at the point of sale. This is an especially serious problem at self-checkouts, the technology that was supposed reduce friction and streamline the customer experience but ended up opening a Pandoras box of new problems.
A handful of companies are working toward addressing this problem in real time through artificial intelligence. Everseen, a software company founded in Cork, Ireland, uses computer vision and AI algorithms to analyze video feeds from retailers staffed registers and self-checkout feeds and automatically detect when a product is left unscanned. Whenever Everseen detects unusual activity, it sends a notification to store management via smartwatch, tablet or other mobile device. This will help prevent theft, but it will also help provide assistance at self-checkouts, which are the source of much customer frustration. The companys current AI technology is in use by five of the worlds 10 largest retailers.
StopLift is another company that offers a similar technology. StopLift uses computer vision and video analytics to detect a number of common scams and errors at checkouts. The system compares the items it detects on video to actual POS data to track items that have not been scanned.
Both solutions become better over time as they gather more data and tune themselves to the specifics of each store.
Many believe that in the future, retail will be fully automated by AI, eliminating long lines and obviating the need for checkouts altogether. This means customers can enter a store, grab the items they need and exitwithout getting arrested for shoplifting.
Though the concept is far from mature, a number of companies are making headways in this direction. Last year, Amazon announced Go, a checkout-free retail store that is still in the experimental stages. Go uses computer vision, machine learning algorithms and IoT sensors to understand customers interactions across the store. The technology automatically updates the shopping cart in an associated mobile app whenever a customer picks up or returns an item from a store shelf.
Amazons plan to open its store to the public in 2017 has hit some hurdles. But the complexities have done nothing to deter the online retail giants resolve in creating the store of the future, and its $13.7 billion acquisition of the Whole Foods might have something to do with it.
Neither has Amazons difficulties prevented other companies from making similar moves, including Walmart, the largest retailer in the U.S., which is taking serious strides to incorporate AI in its retail stores.
Everseen, which has been working on a similar concept since 2012, plans to introduce its own checkout-free technology soon. Called 0Line, the solution will provide retailers with an AI-powered network of video cameras, sensors and biometric data to recognize customers. All of this will interact with inventory, POS and a mobile-based payment solution that will enable instant transactions. By the time customers leave the store, their accounts will have been charged and an itemized virtual receipt will be made available to them.
Thanks to a number of developments, AIs reach is fast expanding into every domain of the physical world. These examples show that brick-and-mortar retail is bound for some major transformations. In a few years the in-store shopping experience may look much different from what were used to, maybe even smarter than its online counterpart.
This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.
Read next: From Uber to Postmates: A tipping guide for the sharing economy
View original post here:
How artificial intelligence is defining the future of brick-and-mortar shopping - TNW
- Classic reasoning systems like Loom and PowerLoom vs. more modern systems based on probalistic networks - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Using Amazon's cloud service for computationally expensive calculations - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Software environments for working on AI projects - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New version of my NLP toolkit - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Semantic Web: through the back door with HTML and CSS - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Java FastTag part of speech tagger is now released under the LGPL - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Defining AI and Knowledge Engineering - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Great Overview of Knowledge Representation - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Something like Google page rank for semantic web URIs - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- My experiences writing AI software for vehicle control in games and virtual reality systems - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- The URL for this blog has changed - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- I have a new page on Knowledge Management - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- N-GRAM analysis using Ruby - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Good video: Knowledge Representation and the Semantic Web - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Using the PowerLoom reasoning system with JRuby - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Machines Like Us - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- RapidMiner machine learning, data mining, and visualization tool - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- texai.org - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- NLTK: The Natural Language Toolkit - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- My OpenCalais Ruby client library - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Ruby API for accessing Freebase/Metaweb structured data - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Protégé OWL Ontology Editor - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New version of Numenta software is available - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Very nice: Elsevier IJCAI AI Journal articles now available for free as PDFs - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Verison 2.0 of OpenCyc is available - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What’s Your Biggest Question about Artificial Intelligence? [Article] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Minimax Search [Knowledge] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Decision Tree [Knowledge] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- More AI Content & Format Preference Poll [Article] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- New Planners Solve Rescue Missions [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Neural Network Learns to Bluff at Poker [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Pushing the Limits of Game AI Technology [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Mining Data for the Netflix Prize [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Interview with Peter Denning on the Principles of Computing [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Decision Making for Medical Support [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Neural Network Creates Music CD [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- jKilavuz - a guide in the polygon soup [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Artificial General Intelligence: Now Is the Time [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Apply AI 2007 Roundtable Report [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- What Would You do With 80 Cores? [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Software Finds Learning Language Child's Play [News] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Artificial Intelligence in Games [Article] - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Artificial Intelligence Resources - November 8th, 2009 [November 8th, 2009]
- Alan Turing: Mathematical Biologist? - April 25th, 2012 [April 25th, 2012]
- BBC Horizon: The Hunt for AI ( Artificial Intelligence ) - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Can computers have true artificial intelligence" Masonic handshake" 3rd-April-2012 - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Kevin B. Korb - Interview - Artificial Intelligence and the Singularity p3 - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Artificial Intelligence - 6 Month Anniversary - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Science Breakthroughs - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Hitman: Blood Money - Part 49 - Stupid Artificial Intelligence! - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Research Members Turned Off By HAARP Artificial Intelligence - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Artificial Intelligence Lecture No. 5 - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- The Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, 2012 - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Charlie Rose - Artificial Intelligence - Video - April 30th, 2012 [April 30th, 2012]
- Expert on artificial intelligence to speak at EPIIC Nights dinner - May 4th, 2012 [May 4th, 2012]
- Filipino software engineers complete and best thousands on Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence Course - May 4th, 2012 [May 4th, 2012]
- Vodafone xone™ Hackathon Challenges Developers and Entrepreneurs to Build a New Generation of Artificial Intelligence ... - May 4th, 2012 [May 4th, 2012]
- Rocket Fuel Packages Up CPG Booster - May 4th, 2012 [May 4th, 2012]
- 2 Filipinos finishes among top in Stanford’s Artificial Intelligence course - May 5th, 2012 [May 5th, 2012]
- Why Your Brain Isn't A Computer - May 5th, 2012 [May 5th, 2012]
- 2 Pinoy software engineers complete Stanford's AI course - May 7th, 2012 [May 7th, 2012]
- Percipio Media, LLC Proudly Accepts Partnership With MIT's Prestigious Computer Science And Artificial Intelligence ... - May 10th, 2012 [May 10th, 2012]
- Google Driverless Car Ok'd by Nevada - May 10th, 2012 [May 10th, 2012]
- Moving Beyond the Marketing Funnel: Rocket Fuel and Forrester Research Announce Free Webinar - May 10th, 2012 [May 10th, 2012]
- Rocket Fuel Wins 2012 San Francisco Business Times Tech & Innovation Award - May 13th, 2012 [May 13th, 2012]
- Internet Week 2012: Rocket Fuel to Speak at OMMA RTB - May 16th, 2012 [May 16th, 2012]
- How to Get the Most Out of Your Facebook Ads -- Rocket Fuel's VP of Products, Eshwar Belani, to Lead MarketingProfs ... - May 16th, 2012 [May 16th, 2012]
- The Digital Disruptor To Banking Has Just Gone International - May 16th, 2012 [May 16th, 2012]
- Moving Beyond the Marketing Funnel: Rocket Fuel Announce Free Webinar Featuring an Independent Research Firm - May 23rd, 2012 [May 23rd, 2012]
- MASA Showcases Latest Version of MASA SWORD for Homeland Security Markets - May 23rd, 2012 [May 23rd, 2012]
- Bluesky Launches Drones for Aerial Surveying - May 23rd, 2012 [May 23rd, 2012]
- Artificial Intelligence: What happened to the hunt for thinking machines? - May 25th, 2012 [May 25th, 2012]
- Bubble Robots Move Using Lasers [VIDEO] - May 25th, 2012 [May 25th, 2012]
- UHV assistant professors receive $10,000 summer research grants - May 27th, 2012 [May 27th, 2012]
- Artificial intelligence: science fiction or simply science? - May 28th, 2012 [May 28th, 2012]
- Exetel taps artificial intelligence - May 29th, 2012 [May 29th, 2012]
- Software offers brain on the rain - May 29th, 2012 [May 29th, 2012]
- New Dean of Science has high hopes for his faculty - May 30th, 2012 [May 30th, 2012]
- Cognitive Code Announces "Silvia For Android" App - May 31st, 2012 [May 31st, 2012]
- A Rat is Smarter Than Google - June 5th, 2012 [June 5th, 2012]