Despite UK retailers quickly adopting artificial intelligence (AI), many are yet to move past leveraging it to automate simple everyday tasks, meaning they are yet to extract the full value of the technology, according to the latest research from Wunderkind.
Original research of over 100 senior retail executives in Wunderkind’s 2024 CMO State of the Union Report showed that almost all (97 per cent) of retail teams are implementing AI in their operations in some way. Leveraging AI for data collection was the most adopted AI used by UK retailers (73 per cent), followed by optimising marketing design (72 per cent) and marketing deployment, which includes reaching and engaging customers (58 per cent).
However, whilst AI adoption within retail is being undertaken at pace, currently much of its deployment has focused on automating day-to-day manual and time-intensive jobs. While this may help retailers save time and allow them to run their operations more efficiently, it’s not necessarily using AI to its greatest potential, Wunderkind suggests, especially when it comes to retailers making the most out of their data or delivering the insights needed to drive marketing and customer engagement performance.
Wunderkind’s poll suggests that currently less than two-fifths (38 per cent) of retailers are using AI to power advanced segmentation and personalisation, while 17 per cent said their biggest challenge in deploying AI was navigating the technology’s use within their organisations.
Wulfric Light-Wilkinson, international GM of Wunderkind, commented: “AI has rapidly reached a tipping point, achieving mass adoption, though for retailers its applications remain largely limited to a narrow, mostly generative, set of use cases. And, whilst most retailers are commonly using the tech to assist with simple everyday tasks, many haven’t yet reached the point where the technology starts to deliver meaningful outcomes.
“To achieve this transformation, retailers need to focus on enhancing the quality of data their AI systems consume, enabling the generation of valuable insights that can lead to meaningful results. Often, this will require collaboration with third-party AI providers, who have access to vast amounts of data from trillions of digital interactions, helping optimise processes, improve performance, and ultimately deliver a solid return on investment.” he added.
Share