Artificial Intelligence in Ecommerce and the Futuristic Transformation So Far

For the longest time, artificial intelligence (AI) was a concept that existed merely in novels and movies and this fascinated users to no end. As the technology made a more mainstream entrance, the industrial sector was one of the first to benefit from its many features, including mitigating workload of laborers and lowering costs. Even then, the extent of AI’s impact had not been fully gauged.

Today, artificial intelligence has made its way into our homes and has integrated itself into our day-to-day activities, especially shopping. The inclusion of artificial intelligence in the ecommerce sector has the potential to revolutionize the way consumers shop online. Business Insider states that by 2020, a whopping 85% of customer interactions will be done without a human. 

Virtual Assistants as Your New Personal Shopper

The three major aspects that AI brings to the ecommerce table are access to computing power, Big Data, and an army of virtual assistants. By using natural language processing (NLP), machine learning, and Deep Learning languages, it can address and respond to human queries. Well-known examples of virtual assistants in today’s technology-driven world include voice assistants like Alexa or Siri.

Easy access to the Internet as well as prolific use of hand-held, connected, and smart devices by consumers is making it easier for chatbots to collate customer data, browser history, previous preferences, shopping behavior patterns, etc. and play the role of a helpful digital personal shopper. 

Retail companies with a strong online presence can provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers. By gathering actionable sales intelligence with respect to client behavior, companies can engage with their customers in an extremely impactful manner.

The Growing Business of Artificial Intelligence 

Artificial intelligence technology is being extensively deployed by a number of online and mobile services such as dialogue and voice recognition of Siri, the Google Assistant, image classification in Facebook & Google Photo, Microsoft Cortana, and Amazon’s Alexa. As more and more players in the ecommerce industry turn to AI as an effective tool to attract new and potential customers, artificial intelligence as a business will continue to soar. Grand View Research predicts that the AI market will cross the US$ 35 billion-mark by 2025.

Recently, Flipkart decided to collaborate with Microsoft in order to double its sales and revenue figures using AI. Taking a leaf out of Flipkart’s book, online shopping portals and companies can rely on artificial intelligence to provide a more customized experience and make transactions smoother. Social media patterns can also be used to offer suggestions to consumers based on their likes and dislikes. This also helps filter out annoying advertisements and other promotional mails that force a consumer to make a purchase.

AI is also being combined with recent image search technologies to search for products accurately. In fact, mobile apps such as Snapchat and Pinterest have been able to capitalize on this to provide customers with accurate data. Getty Images is another case in point. Correct tagging of images can lead to astute consumer suggestions as well as play an integral role in developing predictive analytics further.

Few industries are as competitive as ecommerce and as consumer attention continues to get shorter, retail companies in cyberspace are looking for ways to encourage customers to buy what’s in their shopping cart rather than abandon it. Artificial intelligence seems to be the answer they’re looking for.

For more information visit @ www.grandviewresearch.com