AI Helps Holiday Shoppers

Costco, the giant retailer of all things in family-sized packages, has announced it will go head-to-head with Amazon, Walmart and others, in the products/food delivery business. With plans for one, two or more day deliveries to door-to-door, the seamless chain of open, browse, click and receive will be in full swing during the Christmas holiday season in America. Due to advancements in AI, customers will be able to inquire, order and then check off another name from their Christmas list without knowing that computers did all the work for them flawlessly. The total customer online experience just keeps improving, mostly due to intelligent machines.

The latest Google devices include AI components. Customers with questions about their online orders this holiday shopping season may think they’€™re asking a seasonal worker for help, but artificial intelligence (AI) is likely giving them the information they need. Technology of all kinds is being used on the back end of retail, to organize inventory and manage other operational functions. Whether it’€™s chatting with an online bot or a digital assistant like Alexa, AI is also increasingly becoming a part of the consumer-facing shopping process in ways that, at least for now, are about improving customer service.

Customers with questions about their online orders this holiday shopping season may think they’re asking a seasonal worker for help, but artificial intelligence (AI) is likely giving them the information they need.

According to the latest Accenture data, a majority of consumers are already using or would like to use a number of technologies that are powered by AI when shopping, including chatbots (“automated intelligent customer assistance,” 65%), virtually trying on clothing (65%), and voice commerce systems like Google Home GOOG, +0.92% (68%) and Amazon Alexa (71%).

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The latest Google devices include AI components.

Until recently, much of the retail sector’s energy has been on getting items to the store rather than to the customer, Anthos said. Now that these companies have turned their attention to getting purchases into customers’ hands, the way technology can be used to enhance the customer experience is of paramount importance.

There’s even more urgency to get a handle on the customer service uses of AI in light of all the ways in which Amazon.com Inc. AMZN, +0.89% continues to make e-commerce the simplest and most personalized shopping experience around.

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