Why AI is a $340B opportunity for retail

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 Building the Retail Superstar: How unleashing AI across functions offers a multi-billion dollar opportunity.

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 seven-fold 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 two-thirds (68 per cent) of the jobs being at a senior level (coordinator level or above). 

Meanwhile, 75 per cent declared that AI has not replaced any jobs in their organisation so far, the study said.