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M
ylo Portas, Head of Retail, Peak,
discusses the benefits of using
Artificial Intelligence (AI) to push
sales and ensure customer satisfaction
throughout the retail sector.
AI 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. However, 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 considered
a ‘cool idea’ today will be a commercial
reality by tomorrow. It’s good to consider
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 and total
AI opportunity, businesses should consider
how AI is implemented into all business
areas and functions. 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
www.intelligentcio.com
“
Mylo Portas, Head of Retail, Peak
IT’S PREDICTED
THAT 325,000
RETAILERS WILL
BE USING MACHINE
LEARNING IN SOME
FORM BY 2023.
between teams and different business
areas. This will drive a real, positive change.
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
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