AI Articles and Analysis in Consumer goods

IBM estimates that 265 billion customer support tickets and calls are made globally every year, resulting in $1.3 trillion in customer service costs. IBM also referenced a Chatbots Magazine figure purporting that implementing customer service AI solutions, such as chatbots, into service workflows can reduce a business’ spend on customer service by 30 percent.

By implementing an immersive virtual-reality environment, some AI applications claim it is possible to test products or retail ideas that have not been brought to on the market, putting them on a virtual shelf to study consumer reactions and behavior to real-time merchandising.

AI is finding itself in the physical retail space by way of augmented reality, or AR. Research and Markets estimated the size of the AR in retail market around $1.155 billion in 2018. As of now, numerous companies claim to provide AR support to shopper experiences in a variety of industries, including automotive and fashion.

According to a Deloitte study, 90 percent of worldwide retail sales are still done in physical stores. To compete with the convenience and endless aisle assortment offered online, this research suggests that meaningful customer experiences and brand engagement is crucial.

Episode Summary: When we think of recommendation engines, we might think of Amazon or Netflix, but while consumer goods and entertainment might be the most prominent domains for recommendation engines, there are others. This week, we speak with Madhu Gopinathan of MakeMyTrip, one of the few Indian unicorn companies, about recommendation engines for travel companies.

Speech recognition is technology that can recognize spoken words, which can then be converted to text. A subset of speech recognition is voice recognition, which is the technology for identifying a person based on their voice.

In a study from Researchscape International, 74 percent of 300 marketers surveyed said personalization in this field has strongly helped their clients or companies in advancing customer relationships. It also found that 54 percent said their clients or companies experienced a 10 percent increase in sales, while 13 percent of marketers surveyed reported a more than 30 percent lift.

In 2013, a McKinsey report noted that over 85 percent of Amazon sales revenue was generated from personalized recommendations. Since then, the use of personalized recommendations has grown. On average, today’s personalized recommendations account for 27-percent of retail site revenue, according to a recent Salesforce report.