The National Retail Federation’s annual conference and trade show– correctly named The Big Show – has always been a hotbed of the latest technology for the retail trade. But this year’s event in January was dominated by one such tech to the point that attendees joked it was the password to get into the event: AI.
Artificial Intelligence is something everyone in virtually every industry is talking about, even if most don’t understand it all that well – and fewer can accurately predict how it will impact their businesses. The retail sector has been no different, which made the NRF event critical for those trying to figure it all out.
Google’s managing director of strategic consumer industries in retail, Amy Eichliman, in a post-show NRF report shared survey results reporting that 81 percent of retailers feel an urgency to adopt generative AI. That’s a given but exactly how remains the big question.
The Robin Report, the industry newsletter for senior retail executives, highlighted three uses of AI that are great examples of how retailers are employing the technology to help their business:
- Perceptive AI: Using the technology to both anticipate what shoppers are looking for and then to help them find it will be perhaps the biggest use of AI. Retailers including Walmart, Macy’s and Tractor Supply are all rolling out platforms consumers can use to have a better shopping experience.
- Consumer Guardianship: Some call it circularity and it’s something just now catching on with American consumers but the idea of buying better goods and keeping them longer is starting to gain traction around the world. Using AI tech to help control product usage lifetimes is likely to become more prevalent in the years ahead.
- Eco-Stewardship: Using AI to better control the supply chain, making it more sustainable and eco-friendly, is a third use of the technology the Robin Report found at the NRF Show. Again, this seems to be catching on sooner in Europe but Walmart is one American retailer getting with the program.
“Simply stated,” the newsletter wrote, “AI infusion is retail’s future.”