Artificial intelligence and e-commerce: 5 things that you should know

It?s almost impossible not to encounter the terms artificial intelligence these days. This technology is everywhere including in the e-commerce industry. AI is transforming the way people shop online.

Retailers, big and small, are quickly realizing that there is a lot to be gained from implementing a sound AI strategy. In particular, AI has been crucial in 2 primary areas- search and customer service. Any retail companies that want to stand out and succeed in the future must find ways to incorporate analytics and AI; otherwise, they are doomed to fail.

Artificial intelligence may seem new now, but it has always been around, unbeknownst to many. There are a few reasons why it is back on the agenda now but 2 primary things have changed since AI was conceptualized all those years ago: computing power and access to data.

Today?s computing power is evident- it?s the smartphone in your hand that?s faster and smaller than those bulky supercomputers from the 70s. today, individuals and businesses now enjoy unlimited computing power that can then be used to properly train the right AI algorithms.
The other component that has allowed the continued growth of AI is the availability of data. Not only is data a lot more accessible than it used to be, but it is also rich and massive. Artificial intelligence systems, particularly learning techniques like machine learning grow and thrive based on large, rich sets of data.

When these learning systems are fed data, they can discover trends, correlations, as well as patterns that human analysts could never unearth manually or at all. The e-commerce sector is particularly suited to AI because it utilizes both computing power and data to function.

So how are e-commerce stores using AI? Here are 5 applications of AI at work:

Track customer shopping habits

E-commerce stores are utilizing AI to detect underlying patterns in their customer?s shopping behavior based on the products one buys as well as how one buys them. AI will detect anything from how often you buy coffee from the grocery store, random purchases of whiskey from the liquor store, your Saturday night binges on frozen yogurt- everything.

In the past, store owners had to rely on inventory and sales databases to track customer purchases of individual products. However, with AI and machine learning, store owners can predict the customer?s shopping habits more accurately. As such, machine learning systems will not only know that you like to BBQ every Monday night, but they?ll also know what kind of beer you prefer with your BBQ, which is very impressive.

AI creates a more customer-centric search

Shoppers often abandon an e-commerce store because of irrelevant search results but not with AI. With machine learning, or natural language processing, in particular, search results are narrowed so that customers are only left with the relevant results to go through.

And that?s not all. It is estimated that in the future, most of the searches done online will be voice searches. As such, e-commerce businesses will be forced to implement visual and voice search into the stores to improve the customer experience as well as boost their revenue.

AI offer shoppers personalized recommendations

As mentioned earlier, AI can analyze customer behavior in e-commerce stores and process big data. The data that?s gathered is what is then used to identify shoppers? behavior as well as accurately predict what any given customer is interested in purchasing next.

AI systems can collect data regarding a customer?s previous purchases, the conversations that the customer has had with chatbots or customer service reps, the products that the customer has interacted with, and so much more. All this information is then used by the store to create a more personalized shopping experience, which is what every shopper wants.

Customer support is made easier with AI

The worst thing that an online store can be accused of is a poor response rate when it comes to customer queries. These days, customers want answers to their questions fast so if they have to wait a day or two until their concerns are met, they are definitely going to look for other alternatives.

AI not only ensures that a store provides timely responses to its customers, but it also makes sure that the response time is shortened considerably, day or night. Chatbots are designed to handle queries without human intervention and if the bot comes across a complicated question, the message is then forwarded to the right authorities to handle.

Although chatbots used to be clunky and would only offer one-word answers, these days the bots are so advanced that they are almost like intelligent beings that can communicate effectively with customers.

The ability for chatbots to interact with customers 24/7 helps online stores to provide their customers a seamless shopping experience, which is what keeps customers coming back for more.

AI for generating product descriptions

Writing product descriptions used to be a job reserved for copywriters, but not anymore. Large e-commerce stores with hundreds of goods on sale would be forced to spend hours crafting product descriptions, a process that was not only costly but time-consuming as well.

Thanks to AI, such stores can create product descriptions for the products on offer in a matter of minutes and they don?t even need to go through the best books in AI to do it (good roundup here from Digital Authority ). The text will not only be relevant to the goods on sale, but it will also be optimized for SEO. AI creates product descriptions by analyzing the key features of the products before creating the descriptions based on these features.

Final Words

The promise and potential of AI have been on the horizon for many years with little evidence of any impact in our day to day lives. A couple of years ago, phrases such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning were mere buzzwords hinting potential without actually being realized.

Things are different these days thanks to continued research in AI and technology in general. Deep learning algorithms are responsible for powering driverless cars as well as making facial recognition possible. However, these once fictional innovations are now finding their way into the modern consumer as well.