Vantage point: Retail implementing AI applications to disrupt incumbents

Retailers and tech industry players are creating opportunities for disruption by investing in AI

Retailers and tech industry players are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) and creating opportunities that will disrupt incumbents which include the traditional retailers, according to new research from Frost & Sullivan. The Global Artificial Intelligence Opportunities in Retail, 2017, assesses the commercial viability and impact of retail applications for AI, either through integration with existing workflows or by creating new ones.

The emerging use cases include: Chat bots and virtual assistants—these AI tools of direct customer engagement allow for a seamless experience when ordering products, chat bots have question-answer and recommendation capabilities that make it a highly scalable yet personal sales channel; marketing and segmentation—AI models can use data sets to predict and prioritise the most successful campaigns and channels, and provide these insights to decision-makers; inventory and supply chain optimisation—in addition to increased accuracy and timeliness over traditional systems, AI tools can predict future supply-demand scenarios.

Shift in balance of power from employer to candidate

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A global study of nearly 14,000 job seekers shows a shift in the balance of power from employer to candidate, according to ManpowerGroup, a global firm offering innovative workforce solutions. Back home in India, for prospective candidates the top three important draws while applying to companies are the type of work (57 per cent), opportunity for advancement (48 per cent) and brand reputation of the company (44 per cent).

In India, 46 per cent candidates prefer in-person interviews with the hiring manager and 35 per cent prefer full-time work. Further, the top job search sites visited by Indian candidates include Naukri.com (74 per cent), TimesJobs (52 per cent), Monster (51 per cent), LinkedIn (48 per cent) and shine.com (41 per cent). The top social media sites for job hunting include Facebook (94 per cent), Google Plus (66 per cent), LinkedIn (56 per cent), Twitter (53 per cent) and Instagram (35 per cent).

Indian firms emphasise improved employee experience to achieve biz goals

A recent research on workforce transformation has found that in Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ), only six in 10 (61 per cent) business leaders felt that existing technology in their organisation was sufficient to meet their business goals. In India, firms realise the value of technology and innovation and the importance of constantly improving customer experience better than other developing countries in the region, putting them in a unique position in APJ. The commissioned study, conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Dell, investigated how a workforce enablement approach can impact business performance.

According to the study, about 43 per cent of business and IT leaders in India (higher than the average 38 per cent for APJ) said that they saw employee experience as a critical aspect of achieving their business objectives. Most security breaches that have occurred in the past 12 months are because of vulnerabilities at the device level.