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FEATURE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
THE AIM IS
TO ENSURE
THAT THE
BENEFITS OF
AI CAN BE
ATTRIBUTED
TO THE
BUSINESS IN AN
EFFECTIVE AND
TRANSPARENT
WAY.
A
I can give retailers end-to-end
visibility of their whole business,
increasing sales and conversions,
improving the lifetime value of customers
and improving efficiencies across the entire
business – not just in siloed departments.
In fact, it’s predicted that 325,000 retailers
will be using Machine Learning in some form
by 2023 – the benefits of AI to retailers are
undeniable, so why isn’t everyone in retail
taking advantage of it?
The truth is that many retailers haven’t
quite figured out how to execute their AI
strategy yet or are still undecided on the
first steps they need to take to introduce AI
successfully. The clock is ticking, however and
they need to move now before they miss
out on the advantages of being an early
AI adopter. But, by following just a few key
steps, retailers can adopt AI technologies
with ease, to increase profit margins and
optimise business performance:
Plan ahead
Avoid diving head-first into the AI journey.
It’s important to first outline goals for
achievement and plan to take small, but
steady, steps to reach that destination. The
pace of the technology’s advancement
means that what might be a ‘oh, that’s
a cool idea’ today will be a commercial
reality by tomorrow. It’s good to consider
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short-term achievements, but crucial to also
understand how this will roll into a game-
changing, market-leading piece of kit in
the near future. Put the right structures in
place to accommodate this scale from the
beginning – such as team training, upskilling,
and change management processes.
Connect the dots
In order to create a significant, total AI
opportunity, businesses should consider how
AI is implemented into all business areas
and functions. Businesses are made up of
multiple connected parts, so it’s important to
understand and acknowledge how AI can be
used across the entire enterprise; not only in
terms of top-line growth, but also in terms of
establishing new, positive links between teams
and different business areas. This will drive a
real, positive change across the business.
Focus on tangible outcomes
Once a business has undertaken the
necessary research and development to
understand what their AI strategy entails,
the next step is to actually implement
that strategy framework. It’s important
to remember that introducing AI isn’t like
getting a new CRM or ERP system, or even
a shiny new data warehouse. It needs to be
deployed with the intention of delivering real
business change.
The aim is to ensure that the benefits of
AI can be attributed to the business in an
effective and transparent way. To achieve
this, it’s important to brainstorm and rank
ideas based on the value that they offer and
how difficult they are to deploy successfully.
Utilise data from all areas of business
Businesses gather data all the time, and the
more AI solutions have to work with, the
better the results.
No matter the business system or where it’s
stored, retailers have masses of customer,
transactional and supply chain data at their
disposal. In order to get the most out of this
data, it’s important to engage and empower
people within all teams, to get everyone
on board with your plans for becoming an
AI-driven business. This even includes some
teams that aren’t initially considered as
being potential AI beneficiaries. Simply put,
aim to collect as much data as possible –
and there’s no need to worry if it’s a little
messy; AI can handle it.
When it comes to successfully implementing
AI in retail, businesses should ensure that
they plan ahead, focus on tangible outcomes
and consider the value of AI across the
entire business. Ultimately, data is the
building block to a successful AI strategy and
there’s masses of data out there just waiting
to be used. n
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