Why AI is a $340B opportunity for retail

28%

Of retailers used AI in ’18, up from 17% in ’17

paris — The use of artificial intelligence offers about $340 billion in cost-saving opportunities for retail companies that are able to scale and expand the scope of their existing deployments, according to a new global study from France’s Capgemini.

However, just 1 per cent of retailers have achieved this level of deployment so far, showed the results from the study entitled It found that most retailers are focusing their AI efforts on sales and marketing when there is a significant opportunity to unleash AI use cases across the value chain.

“Our research shows a clear imbalance of organisations prioritising cost, data and RoI [return on investment] when deploying AI, with only a small minority considering the customer pain points also,” Kees Jacobs, vice-president for global consumer products and retail sector at Capgemini, said.

Researchers found that over a quarter (28 per cent) of retailers deployed AI in 2018, a significant increase of AI deployments from 2017 (17 per cent), and a sevenfold increase from 2016 (4 per cent). Dispelling fears of major job losses due to AI deployment, the results showed that 71 per cent of retailers said AI was creating jobs today, with over twothirds (68 per cent) of the jobs being at a senior level (coordinator level or above). —