International Data Corporation (IDC) published an IDC Innovators report profiling four technology vendors that have introduced powerful tools incorporating artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) for use in the retail industry. The four companies are: AiFi, Birdzi, Eversight, and Lily AI.
Retail is a prime testing ground for AI/ML because it offers massive transaction volume and scale, complicated retail problem scenarios, and elevated levels of repetitive engagement relative to other industries. Accordingly, the IDC Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Spending Guide shows retail will be the leading industry for AI spending over the next five years. While these investments will largely focus on solutions that improve the customer experience through automated customer service and recommendation engines, there are other areas where mature AI applications deliver substantive value to retailers, including demand forecasting, price optimization, computer vision and search. Innovations in AI apply new ways of applying intelligence algorithms and machine learning that can serve retail.
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“AI is becoming more and more of an inherent retail capability, and soon will not only have ubiquitous application, but also be invisible to the retail consumer,” said Ananda Chakravarty, research vice president, Retail Merchandising and Marketing Analytics Strategies at IDC. “The opportunities for retail AI are limited only by imagination, data, and culture.”
The report, IDC Innovators: AI Opportunities in Retail (Doc #US42731417), profiles four emerging vendors focused on retail that have introduced powerful tools with successful AI outcomes. For purposes of this study, IDC casts a broad net with specific focus on innovation in AI applications or underlying AI software technologies that drive autonomous stores, personalization, price/promotion optimization, and image recognition and pattern matching.
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The four companies are:
- AiFi uses computer vision and multi-level AI to identify products through pattern recognition and monitor human activity with biometric tracking using standard camera technologies.
- Birdzi offers a customer-centric personalization platform that can instantly generate highly personalized marketing campaigns capable of targeting millions of customers at scale.
- Eversight offers a dynamic price optimization tool that provides a full picture of base price value through continual testing and learning using AI and ML.
- Lily AI converts visual product images into data attribute sets to help define differentiating factors that impact customer purchase.
