Everyone’s talking about AI. It’s one of those concepts that rears its head every now and again often in line with the latest Terminator franchise release, (or Ghost in the Shell if like me you’re an Anime fan). It’s a subject that almost everyone has a basic understanding and some kind of opinion on, but even the most minor scratch under the surface and a whole world of Challenges, Technical Complexity, Unknown Quantities and Ethical dilemmas occur.

This goes some way to explain why it’s application in real world scenario’s has, until recently, been minimal. But it’s the fundamental compelling-ness of the concept that brings it back and back and back. Because of that, it can only be a matter of time before these concepts become prevalent, beyond the realm of the bleeding edge and becoming a staple of the Retail Sector.

With the onset of a variety of new technologies, automation, machine learning, cognitive computing, natural language processing and the Internet of Things (IoT), Retailers we’ve engaged with can now be equipped to:

• Enhance the Shopping experience for the customer
• increase return on product life cycles
• maximise the output from Buyers & Merchandisers
• further optimise Stock, Logistics & Supply Chain Operations.

But the key to the adoption of these technologies is not rooted in these purported benefits. Rather it must be directly connected to their ability to influence the Top and Bottom Line revenues for the Business as a whole. We often refer to the 1% in these cases and measuring the effect of that 1% change on the overall profit margin of a retail business.

It only requires a single effective 1% Use Case in one of the above areas for a £500m turnover company to justify the ongoing investment in these technologies. To achieve this as an ongoing programme of Strategic work can be too great a challenge for a mid-sized retailer to embark on. So we often see that a selecting a Single Use Case to deliver as a PoC or Pilot project is the best way forwards. This can initially be delivered as an isolated solution avoiding disruption to daily operations while in progress, but with measurable Revenue benefits being achieved on completion as the insights achieved are actioned in the Operational environment,

In actual fact, we’re seeing a lot of this begin to happen already, and it’s in this transitional phase where Competitive advantage can be won or lost. Any Retailer who stalls or procrastinates over their application of these technologies runs the risk of losing significant ground in their market. Unquestionably companies who have adopted these principles are blazing the trail and already leaving competitors in their wake.

So the question becomes “How do we deliver on this? not “do we even do it?”. And to embark on it on your own is a daunting task. There are a huge variety of tools available to support, some more comprehensive than others but each having their place. Then there’s the availability of Skills, we’ve all seen the sparsity of good quality Data Scientists, let alone building out the Data Engineering & Visualisations to support the Algorithms they’ve created. And in many cases, the Capability, Agility and even Availability of the Internal IT/Data team simply aren’t there to get the process started effectively.

So it might just be that some kind of the Third party could be included to assist with the delivery (at least of the first Pilot Projects and Phase 1 Use Cases).

And it may just be that someone like Datalytyx has all the capabilities you’ll need to get this delivered.

And in that case, it may just be that you’d like to have a conversation with us to talk things through in real detail.

Now, if that’s the case, you know where I am: drew.james@datalytyx.com.