5 ways retailers can use generative AI

The retail industry is well acquainted with AI. Alibaba and Amazon’s e-commerce sites use AI to provide online shoppers with personalized shopping recommendations, manage traffic volumes and even detect fraud. (Retail Customer Experience, 2023) However, since ChatGPT and Google Bard, retailers are chopping at the bit to get their hands on this latest generative AI technology. Indeed, research shows that nine in ten retail executives believe these large language models will be pivotal to future strategies. (Accenture, 2023)

Below are five ways retailers can use generative AI to enhance the customer experience (CX), increase efficiencies and boost revenue.  

1. Personalization 

Brands use AI to analyze massive amounts of data to extract insights, allowing retailers to make more personalized recommendations based on customer preferences and purchase history. Generative AI will operate similarly but go a step further by using that data to create unique marketing and promotional content for customers. If deployed correctly with access to multiple data sources, generative AI could produce and deliver optimized promotions in real-time to shoppers’ devices, in-store or online. (ESM, 2023)

2. Optimizing inventory management 

Just as generative AI can harness unstructured data sources to craft individualized promotions for customers, so too can it create suggestions for retailers. By pulling from various data sources, be that historical sales data and market trends or social media sentiment and weather conditions, generative AI can craft demand forecasts, optimize inventory management and minimize stockouts. (Forbes, 2023)  

3. In-store guide

Because generative AI excels at summarizing insights, drawing from variables like store layout and current inventory information, an AI-based app could act as an in-store guide, enabling shoppers to traverse quickly through a store via curated recommendations. (Forbes, 2023) In particular, a customer could ask this web or mobile application where certain products are located and even receive alternatives if the item is out of stock. (Databricks, 2023)

4. Automating customer service communications

When integrated with conversational AI-powered tools like chatbots and virtual assistants, best-in-class generative AI solutions can augment contact centers, automating many repetitive and tedious inquiries agents must resolve. Agents will have more time to focus on only the most urgent and complex customer requests. Nevertheless, retailers should always direct the customer to a live agent if an issue comes into the customer service environment beyond the capabilities of the AI solution.

5. Increase customer experience 

Retailers can create advanced training environments for generative AI solutions, like ChatGPT, by providing transcribed customer calls and messages across different channels. With this information, generative AI will ‘learn,’ identifying reoccurring issues and other trends, making it even better at responding to shoppers’ challenges, massively increasing CX.   

Automate your communication capabilities with SmartAgent

IntelePeer recently integrated ChatGPT into SmartAgent, our digital solution for contact centers. Using the power of generative AI alongside analytics and our suite of built-in, industry-leading conversational AI solutions, like IBM Watson, Google Dialogflow, and AWS Lex, SmartAgent empowers retailers to make their contact centers more efficient and cost-effective.  

Find out how SmartAgent can help your business deliver unparalleled CX and increase your bottom line by reaching out to an IntelePeer representative today.