Artificial intelligence, partnering with retail.
From customising web offers to voice activated sales, through to analysing customer flow and emotions in store, artificial intelligence has become an integral part of the customer journey in the space of a few years. And it doesn’t look like the trend will be reversed, not while the GAFA and tech companies are constantly pushing the limits. AMAZON and ALIBABA take the lead.
When AI finds the right product for you
Picture this: you’re in town or out jogging and you pass someone carrying a bag or wearing a pair of trainers that you really like but you don’t recognise the brand or model. It’s difficult, if not impossible, to find this product later by simply typing “cool green trainers” or “pretty blue bag” into your search engine… unless you’ve taken a photo and enter it in “search by image and find similar”. This extension developed by ALIBABA that can be added to your web browser allows you to find an identical or similar product directly on ALIBABA’s site. In fact, the AI developed here is capable, within milliseconds, of identifying the product in the photo, extracting its characteristics and browsing the site’s millions of references and marketplaces, in order to find the image – and therefore the product – that corresponds to it. The feature has had a quick take up from fashionistas as well as drop shippers, who find it an efficient way to reference the latest trends at the best prices. But what if your dream product doesn’t even exist yet?
What if artificial intelligence could create the product you always dreamed of?
Have you ever dreamed of a jacket with a unicorn’s head on the back? Or your first name in big shiny letters? Or just some black trousers that would fit perfectly in slim or regular versions? Ask AMAZON! Jeff BEZOS’s company, as ever at the cutting edge, has developed AI capable of generating images of clothing that match written requests. The idea: facilitate the customer’s search by allowing him to visualise instantly what the product he is looking for looks like.
The breakthrough relies on generational antagonistic networks (GAN). This form of artificial intelligence, which combines 2 technologies – one that looks for samples of existing products and the other that creates them – is currently only able to adjust search results for trousers, shorts, their colours, and their gender. But in future, other elements could be added. It’s conceivable that depending on the volume of queries generated by Internet users AI could launch on-demand manufacturing and thus bring out previously unseen trends or products. From aggregator of genius, artificial intelligence will move to the next level: a designer that never runs out of ideas!