by Antonis Zairis*
The importance of AI and machine learning in the retail market is confirmed by the projected dramatic growth of AI services worldwide, which will skyrocket from $5 billion to $30 billion by 2030. In our country, AI applications start to find brilliant scope in terms of automating many routine tasks, reorganizing key functions within the business, optimizing the product delivery process and better planning across all phases of the supply chain. In this way, resources are released in terms of human resources, which are used to provide better and higher quality customer service. The transformation of the retail landscape leads to operational savings, cost reductions and a dramatic increase in business competitiveness, while at the same time enhancing the customer experience as they can now easily search and quickly find what they want to buy.
On the other hand, POS systems process and utilize information about both the type of customers and the product categories they choose. A major challenge today is to gain an in-depth understanding of changing customer behaviour and pricing policy choices, which, thanks to artificial intelligence, allows businesses to both predict demand and design more secure and successful strategies for reaching existing and potential customers. The analysis of consumer data leads to the implementation of personalised marketing strategies, and digital marketing tools through e-commerce now offer the possibility of targeting a much wider audience.
The changes brought about by artificial intelligence and robotics, one of the most fundamental components of the fourth industrial revolution, are testing the retail market’s resistance to confrontation as adaptation will be forced, but they are also "generating" opportunities for workers to share knowledge, experience, seek specialisation and develop new skills that the market needs. The new added value that emerges from the use of artificial intelligence applications will make the category of those businesses that will incorporate it into their daily operations, strong, capable and with greater claims to compete in the field of international competition with multiple benefits not only for themselves but also for our national economy since they will also benefit the trade balance of our country.
The threefold basis of the new digital reality in retail in relation to consumers is therefore composed of: firstly, from a new form of digital consumer service experience (smart baskets, digital mirrors, etc.) secondly, from the presence of an interconnected supply chain , where new types of sensors are involved and detect in real time the movement of products in all phases of production until the finalization of the final product and close monitoring of stock control and thirdly , by the interconnected new type of consumer who is looking for a comparison experience between physical, digital and hybrid store with a large amount of information data and personalisation of needs and preferences.
*Deputy Vice President of SELPE, Assistant Professor, Business Administration-Marketing, Neapolis University, Cyprus, Associate Professor ,Hellenic Mediterranean University, Greece & Member of the Association of American Economists (AEA) and Member of the World Economic Forum
By: N. Peter Kramer
