Honeywell has released its Global Retailer Technology Survey, which found that Europe’s major retailers are fully invested in artificial intelligence (AI) and its potential to make operations more efficient. Over eight in 10 (84 per cent) European retailers are already using AI—in line with the 85 per cent of respondents globally—with nearly two-thirds (61 per cent) planning to expand their use of AI in the near future, while 22 per cent want to maintain current usage and 14 per cent do not have AI yet but are planning to pilot it.
From demand planning to customer service, the survey also highlights how European retailers are thinking about how AI can improve operations.
- Respondents said marketing (44 per cent), customer service (35 per cent), sales (35 per cent) and procurement (35 per cent) were the areas that could benefit most from AI and digitisation developments.
- Retailers in Europe attributed more value to AI for marketing and procurement activities than other regions did (+7 per cent from the global average).
- By contrast, fewer retailers in Europe than in other regions said AI had the potential to accelerate their supply chains (27 per cent in Europe vs. 34 per cent globally).
“Retailers are looking to AI to better understand customer buying behaviour and adjust their marketing strategies in a constantly changing and competitive environment,” said Oscar Ganuza, general manager, Honeywell Productivity Solutions and Services Europe, LATAM, APAC and META. “Throughout Europe, AI has tremendous potential to unlock growth, create hyper-personalised customer experiences and make operations more efficient throughout the retail supply chain.”
Retailers in Europe also expressed significant motivation to use generative AI agents to aid store associates, whether to help answer customer questions on the spot or speed up the employee onboarding process. This use of AI was a top desired outcome of implementing AI-based solutions (36 per cent for European retailers vs. 32 per cent globally), along with using AI for smarter inventory and demand forecasting (36 per cent for European retailers, 33 per cent globally). Notably, nearly a third of European respondents (31 per cent) said using AI to help with labour planning and workforce optimisation was a top priority, compared with 26 per cent of respondents globally.
Other advanced technologies are also making an impact on the retail landscape in Europe, with 41 per cent of retailers using optical character recognition (OCR), 29 per cent adopting augmented reality (AR) and 27 per cent investing in machine and camera vision (CV) technologies. OCR can speed up retail workflows when replenishing the shelf inventory or identifying mislabeled prices by quickly reading labels and other product information. CV can help mitigate the growing challenge with retail shrinkage, while AR can help shoppers or employees visualise a product in a space.
Though survey results show overall continued momentum for AI, European retailers expressed some concerns about its adoption. The top anticipated challenges for future AI implementation in the region included complexity of AI models (41 per cent), customer acceptance (41 per cent) and regulatory compliance (40 per cent)—suggesting there is an opportunity for retailers to demonstrate to customers the benefits AI can bring.
450 large retailers throughout the U.S., Europe, Latin America, India and the Middle East were surveyed on how they are using advanced technologies throughout their operations, including AI, automation, augmented reality, machine vision and sensors. European retailers participating in the survey were located throughout the UK and Germany and had a minimum annual revenue of US$25 million.
Whether predicting stock requirements based on customer buying behaviour and seasonal demand or automatically adjusting pricing strategies in real time based on demand patterns, AI is helping retailers across the globe drive growth and cost savings.
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