Automation and AI are not the future – you are
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refers to coding that will allow the software programme to understand unstructured data like voice and email and draw conclusions that will trigger next best actions. AI is the answer when an organisation is
required to handle or process large volumes of unstructured data, often in real time. These solutions ‘learn from experience’ in the same way that humans do to complete complex tasks. Today in retail we already see automation
“AI is the answer when an organisation is required to handle or process large volumes of unstructured data.”
same panoply will unfurl around the potential implementation and benefits of automation in all its forms.
Automation falls broadly into three areas: • Robotic Process Automation (RPA) • Cognitive Automation • Artificial Intelligence (AI)
RPA is basically software or code that
follows a set process of pre-defined rules from simple macros in a spreadsheet to large scale document scanning, form filling and database updates at high volume and at high speed. Cognitive or ‘enhanced’ automation
and even cognitive automation at work. Behind those Facebook and Amazon ‘recommends’, there is an engine room at work churning algorithms and pulling and pushing content relevant to your click or ‘hover’ history built up over days including purchases and dropped baskets. You will already notice when you search for an item in Google that Facebook is telepathically wired into your brain and behold, every page now features that watch you adore or that pair of shoes you crave while trying to convince yourself that clicking on ‘buy now’ is the same as an ‘impulse buy’ in-store. AI is undoubtedly going to play a bigger and
bigger part in our lives. Whatever we feel about it, our behaviours, our preferences and for this or that and when, our very mood swings even – typical or atypical, are all ‘predictable’ over a statistically relevant time frame. There will, for example, be apps in the near future which you can use to continue to update your social media profile when you’re not actually around, on leave, working on a major or project or, ultimately, no longer with us. If you are a retailer you will already have
a marketing department diligently placing product and offers across a range of online, smart device enabled platforms just waiting for that spark of interest generated from a major television advertisement, billboard or magazine campaign. Once ignited, with or without a name, you have the potential customer in your sights. By pattern matching a whole range of associated behaviours, your automated marketing system will have created a profile that will continue an appropriate feed of content to finally make that sale. The big challenge comes, of course, when
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