📈#015: Inside the AI revolution hitting retail right now

It's another global intelligence briefing of Market Mosaic. We are excited you have continued reading our cutting-edge market insights and global economic trends. 📈 In case you missed one of our key announcements, we are calling for contributors.

In this week's edition, we unpack how major retail players are racing to operationalise generative AI to transform the consumer shopping experience, streamline product merchandising workflows, cut costs, and drive productivity gains.

Let's explore the insights diving into the frontier of GenAI in retail.

— Insights Team, Rwazi

Our Edition this week:

• Data Spotlight

• The Pulse

• Sector Scan

• Our Competitive Watch

DATA SPOTLIGHT
The AI transformation of retail

Retailers have long grappled with the challenge of delivering personalised, responsive service at scale as customer communications flooded in across digital channels. Now, AI is enabling companies to automate those critical customer touchpoints.

Take Meta's partnership with Dentsu as an example. The two companies have joined forces to deploy GenAI, which allows businesses to have more contextual, individualised interactions via Meta's messaging platforms like WhatsApp. With 50 million messages going unanswered on these apps each year, the application of AI to intelligently suggest responses could be revolutionary.

But the impact goes beyond just keeping up with volume. GenAI has the potential to fundamentally elevate customer service quality through hyper-personalized communications tailored to each customer's needs and personality.

Key Insight: By automating personalised customer communications at scale, retailers can cost-effectively deliver best-in-class service experiences that build lasting brand affinity and loyalty.

Key Stats

• AI Penetration in retail: 25% of major retailers have deployed generative

• AI use cases in 2023: projected to reach 80% by 2027

• Global spending on AI software services: $62B in 2022 (forecasted 23% annual growth over next 5 years)

THE PULSE
Featured Chart: Artificial intelligence (AI0 in retail market size (2024-2030)

SECTOR SCAN
The quest for intuitive product discovery

Generative AI is also being unleashed to help shoppers better find the products they want to buy amidst the seemingly endless online catalogue options. Retailers are enhancing search capabilities to understand intent and context beyond just keywords.

In companies like Walmart, AI enables shoppers to search based on use cases like "products for a football watch party" rather than hunting for individual items. The technology comprehends the shopper's goal and curates a personalised list of relevant items - streamlining the discovery process. 

Key Insight: The potential age of intuitive, context-aware product discovery powered by generative AI could drive higher e-commerce conversion rates. If retailers can leverage AI to surface the perfect products for each shopper's needs effortlessly, it reduces shopper frustration and shortens the path to purchase.

OUR COMPETITIVE WATCH
eBay's "magical" AI listing tool

For eBay's massive seller community - many of whom are small businesses or resellers without primary resources - getting products listed quickly with detailed descriptions and information can be challenging. Its AI listing tool simplifies this process by automatically generating rich product listings just from sellers uploading images of the items.

The advanced computer vision and language models analyse the visuals to extract all pertinent data points like product name, description, condition details and other key attributes. This allows eBay's sellers to rapidly list products for sale while providing buyers with more thorough information to inform purchases.

Key Insight: As generative AI's skills in analysing scenes, objects, and images continue advancing, we'll likely see more applications that capitalise on this capability to enhance retail processes.

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