At UBTECH, we believe that Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics are two of the most important and significant technology trends in the modern era. In a recent McKinsey report, the company states that developments in AI could potentially create between $3.5 trillion and $5.8 trillion in value annually*. Advancements in Robotics and AI touch almost every aspect of modern life and their effect on retail is no different. Today, there are multiple ways in which the retail industry utilizes AI and robots to perform basic tasks. At global supermarket chain Tesco for instance, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) robots are used to check store inventory, a task they perform in a few seconds compared to hours that a human would take for the same task. In addition to these levels of efficiency, robots have a higher accuracy rate than human manual inventory checking. Taking away these mundane tasks frees up human employees to focus on actually helping customers. Similarly, many other major retailers, both online such as Amazon and physical such as Walmart, are fully leveraging robotics to drive their operations. Here are some of the ways we believe robotics and AI will influence and revolutionize the world of retail. Robotic Personal Shoppers One of the biggest challenges customers face in their retail experience is finding in-store assistance. Whether it’s finding a product, checking to see if something is available in your size, or just a simple price check, a retail robot can assist and, in many cases, provide help faster than their human colleagues. Retail robots can learn everything about a store and have instant access to product pricing, availability, promotions, coupons, discounts and product location within the store. This allows retail robots to rapidly and efficiently assist customers. This in contrast to a human retail associate who may not have all the information on hand to assist the customer when asked. In addition, human employees have moods that vary. We’ve all experienced an employee who is clearly having a bad day unable to give his or her best to customers. Using Machine Learning and AI, retail robots can actually “learn” to respond pleasantly to customers in almost any scenario, drastically reducing the possibility of a bad encounter. The reduction in negative customer interactions drives down returns and negative customer ratings and inversely drives up purchasing and overall customer satisfaction with the company or brand. A Deeper and More Personal Customer Experience While robots and their customized interactions are one way of improving the customer experience, the true revolution that AI promises lies elsewhere. Shopping online, we’re all used to relevant promotions (Amazon’s ubiquitous “Customers who viewed this item also viewed…”) personalized deals and recommendations for products based on who we are and our previous purchases. Using AI and robotics, the same sort of experience can be achieved in-store. Imagine walking into your favourite retailer and being greeted by a robot. This robot has a picture of your face, knows your name and asks if you need assistance finding what you’re looking for. While the robot leads you to the products you need, it recommends complementary products and discounts (based on your shopping history) and helps you find the best deals possible. Imagine as a retailer being to gather the same amount of data that you gather online in your actual stores. This includes better capturing what questions customers are asking, what advertisements are receiving a positive response and what products customers are looking for. This combined with purchasing and revenue information offer a full holistic view of your customers and how they engage with your store. This is the sort of deeper and more personal retail experience that robotics and AI will provide soon. Robotics and Artificial Intelligence are changing the retail experience all over the world and at UBTECH we’re constantly refining the way our robots add value to our customers. A prime example of this is Cruzr©, our cloud based intelligent service robot (https://www.ubtrobot.com/products/cruzr). Cruzr is an intelligent service robot from UBTECH Robotics. Cruzr uses cutting edge robotics and AI technology to help enhance the experience of customers at retail, hospitality and other establishments. Cruzr integrates easily with your retail systems and channels to be an essential part of your workforce. For our retail customers, Cruzr is able to: Proactively find and greet customers. Provide instantaneous product price, location and discount information for customers. Navigate around the store to help shoppers find what they need quickly. Provide an interactive touch screen or voice recognition system to interact with customers. Act as a smart advertising platform, delivering targeted advertising based on where it is in in the store and who it’s interacting with. Leverage facial recognition to provide a premium interactive experience for high value customers. Request assistance from a human employee for unique customer service requests. This can be achieved by a video call from the robot or the robot can request a human employee to come to the location. Contact authorities and act as a video recording device in the event of an emergency. And much more… Summary In 2019, because of advancements in AI and automation, customers are experiencing retail shopping in entirely different and more pleasant ways. Smart retailers are taking advantage of smart robots and are seeing an immediate ROI on their expenditures. As a company on the bleeding edge of robotics and Artificial Intelligence, we can tell you there’s a lot more good stuff coming down the road. If you would like to learn more or your organization could benefit from some of the advances we have talked about, contact us at cruzr.info@ubtrobot.com * https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/artificial-intelligence/notes-from-the-ai-frontier-applications-and-value-of-deep-learning
