Technology

Retailers investing in AI this year

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February 7, 2024

Retailers are committed to AI infrastructure spend this year with over 60% planning to increasing AI investment in the next 18 months.

That's a prime finding from NVIDIA's first annual retail AI survey which also revealed retailers are looking to generative AI to transform everything from customer service to product description processes.

The survey results are outlined in a blog written by Cynthia Countouris.

Key findings include:

• 69% of respondents reported an increase in annual revenue attributed to AI adoption.
• 72% of retailers using AI reported they experienced a decrease in operating costs.
• 54% of C-suite executives ranked shrinkage reduction as one of their AI applications.

"With the highest potential for AI and analytics among all industries, the retail and consumer packaged goods sectors are poised to harness the power of AI to enhance operational efficiency, elevate customer and employee experiences and drive growth. As such, it's crucial to stay ahead of the curve by anticipating potential trends that aim to change the retail game," stated the blog post.

The survey provides insights into the state of AI adoption in retail, its impact on revenue and costs and the emerging trends shaping the future of the industry and polled more than 400 C-suite leaders and executives.

The top five current AI use cases are:

1. Personalized customer recommendations.
2. Store analytics and insights.
3. Loss prevention and asset protection.
4. Augmented reality experiences.
5. Automated marketing content generation.

"Generative AI prominently emerged in several of the top AI use cases for retail. The use cases ranged from multimodal shopping advisors for personalized product recommendations; adaptive advertising, promotions and pricing; product tagging and cataloging; identification of similar and complementary products; as well as deployment of brand avatars for automated customer service," stated the blog.