How Amazon, Pinterest and Nike are Achieving True Personalisation Through Generative AI
It came as no surprise when Collins Dictionary unveiled ‘AI’ as their word of the year. At the start of 2023, ChatGPT – or ChatGTG, ChatGBT, ChatGTT , or whatever people were calling it back then – was little more than an abstract concept for many people. But it ended with similar offerings being rolled out by tech giants like Google and Oracle rolling out their own versions that are already deeply ingrained in most industries. And retail is one industry that is already making great use of the technology.
While AI has indeed been used in retail for several years, it is the advancements in generative AI that are transforming the retail experience before our eyes, particularly in the realm of personalisation. In this article, we will delve into how generative AI is evolving the personalisation offerings of retailers and how the biggest players in the industry are currently implementing the technology.
The Evolution of Product Descriptions
Generative AI can transform product pages by personalising product descriptions, making it easier and more engaging for customers to discover new products. By segmenting audiences via factors such as location, demographics and browsing history, generative AI can make product descriptions customised to certain audiences. Away from simple text, AI can also create unique landing pages, showing customers images and accompanying text that feels unique and builds a deeper connection.
Virtual Personal Shopping Assistant
Endlessly searching for products in a certain size or colour could be a thing of the past with generative AI. AI personal shopping assistants can help consumers along the purchasing journey by recommending tailored products they may like through the analysis of their purchase history, preferences and behaviour.
Equally, by using conversational language, AI can engage with customers using human-like language, creating that personal and more humanised experience that historical chatbots have been unable to do.
By extension, AI can implement virtual try-ons to the shopping experience. With many customers preferring to shop online since the pandemic, AI can allow customers to 'try on' items of clothing or see what a product looks like in a certain space, without them having to leave the comfort of their own home, or purchase the product before knowing what it looks like, or how it fits.
Transforming Customer Support
Customer support is emerging as a key area of the customer experience that can be drastically improved using generative AI. Virtual assistants can be used at scale 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to provide customers with efficient answers to queries and resolve any issues they have. Wait times can be greatly reduced, and customers can receive support in a highly personalised and efficient manner.
Additionally, through the advanced algorithms that generative AI possesses, it can use contextual understanding to analyse customer interactions and provide highly relevant and personalised answers. AI chatbots are more versatile and adaptable than human customer support operatives are able to be, due to the great amount of data that can be accessed at any time to ensure answers are truly personalised to each customer.
Generative AI's role in customer support can be twofold however, as front-line representatives can effortlessly extract key insight from chat data such as shipping information and size preferences. Equally, AI can summarise a whole chat, and deliver frontline workers with targeted offers and scripts for individual customers, further enhancing the personalisation offering for retailers.
Current Use Cases
Nike
Nike is already using generative AI for trainer designs. Their AI solution analyses images of existing designs and creates new ones based on that data. By using references for designs that have been popular with customers, the Ai can create new designs that feel fresh, whilst resonating with their audience.
Amazon
By analysing consumer behaviour and tracking damages on returned items, Amazon uses generative AI to optimise their pricing strategy. Additionally, they are developing a cloud-based platform that will allow customers to build their own AI bots.
Pinterest has implemented an AI solution which can identify images within images, which has transformed the way in which users can find related content. The tool also allows Pinterest to show users advertisements from brands they will be interested in, which is increasing engagement and boosting Pinterest's advertising revenue. Although huge strides were made in 2023, AI’s transformational capability for retail is yet to be realised. Incredible things are already being done and generative AI is allowing retailers to reach new heights with their personalisation offers. The future almost certainly belongs to AI and its role in revolutionising retail is unfolding right in front of us.