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Innovation

How AI, self-service applications are transforming customer behavior

As consumers become used to using self-service technology, technology providers are offering more tool such as artificial intelligence and data analytics in combination with self service. Retailers, financial institutions and other businesses are beginning to embrace these technologies with tools ranging from self-service kiosks to enhanced ATMs.

How AI, self-service applications are transforming customer behavior


As consumers become used to using self-service technology, technology providers are offering more tools for improving customer satisfaction, retention and acquisition. Such tools include artificial intelligence and data analytics in combination with self service. Retailers, financial institutions and other businesses are beginning to embrace these technologies with tools ranging from self-service kiosks to enhanced ATMs.

How well are these tools being accepted by customers and retailers? How can a retailer or financial institution know when to "jump in" with the latest technology?

A trio of retail technology experts — Nathan Vank, Western North America sales manager at IronYun, Michael Johnson, key account manager for artificial intelligence and retail at Advantech, and Sarah Yang, product manager for intelligent city service at Advantech — recently shared their insights on how retailers can use these emerging tools during a Kiosk Marketplace webinar, "How Self-Service Applications Are Changing Customer Behavior."

Elliot Maras, editor of Kiosk Marketplace, moderated the webinar.

A new workplace culture

Workplace trends are underscoring the importance of self service, Johnson said at the start of the webinar. He noted that a recent survey found that nearly three quarters of the population support workers going on strike.

"It does kind of highlight a change in the culture and a change in the temperature, kind of showing how the marketplace is evolving," Johnson said. "It really exposes the need for AI and self-service solutions."

The need affects the customer, the retail staff and the retailers themselves, Johnson said.

Brick-and-mortar here to stay

And while work culture is changing, traditional brick-and-mortar retail is not dead, he said.

"Customers still like the ability to interact with an item before buying it," Johnson said. "There seems to be a need for a better, faster, more uplifting shopping experience" as shoppers return to malls. They also want the ability to return unwanted items.

Retail staff, for their part, seek freedom from repetitive, mundane, low-skill level tasks.

"There's a need for better customer service enabling retail staff to focus on customer service," Johnson said, which translates into a need to create a better shopping experience for customers.

AI rises to the challenge

AI-powered video analytics can allow a store to recognize the shopper, create a profile for the individual and use it to tailor promotions to the customer in the store. Alerts can also be made to staff to mention promotions.

"There's a lot of benefit of artificial intelligence, with the integration with kiosks," Johnson said.

Vank of IronYun expanded on how AI meets the needs of retailers.

"With AI and these devices, you can get the exact granular details you're looking for; you can get the gender and the age, you can get a heat map of the floors to see which direction traffic is traveling…you can put a sign in the middle and see if it prompts people and compels them to grab the offer there or pushes them to the right or pushes them to the left," he said. "There's no more guess work. AI can deliver that information to you today."

AI data also helps improve loss prevention and monitor safety in real time.

"You can detect aggressive acts now in real time without a human monitoring," he said.

As for operational efficiency, AI can catalog all inventory and help with forecasting.

AI makes its mark

"I think it's spreading like wildfire," Vank said when asked about retail acceptance of the technology. "It's just so convenient and so powerful. It's not just a little bit better than previous generations. It's significantly different."

The most essential AI generated reports for retailers are the foot traffic, the demographics and the customer profiles, Vank said.

Acknowledging that many retailers are wary of how challenging the technology might be for employees, Vank said the latest technology is "plug and play" and user friendly.

While retailers continue to be concerned about improving store cleanliness, touchless technology also continues to be popular with customers, Johnson said.

Vank compared touchless options to when automobiles introduced "push to start"; the customer still had the option of using their key.

As for customer privacy concerns' impact on biometric identification at retail, Vank said thanks to the omnipresence of cameras in today's world, privacy concerns are not discouraging customers.

"In a lot of ways, your privacy is more secure than ever before," Vank said. "Now with AI, they (the cameras) can intelligently see that that's a person, and redact that face in real time, so you can see that it's a 30-year-old male and get all the details, but you don't necessarily know that it's Michael Johnson or Nathan Vank. You can get the value without worrying about intruding anyone's privacy."

What's next?

Yang of Advantech explored what future self-service innovation will look like, noting that progress will be made in the areas of store accessibility, safety, support and marketing.

Self-service technology has already allowed stores to enable customers to access information anytime, anywhere. Self-serve kiosks can provide information, enable self-checkout and self order, freeing staff to focus on support tasks.

In the area of safety, auto detecting temperature technology can notify staff and customers via thermal screening cameras, while occupancy cameras allow the staff to know the headcount in the store.

In the area of efficiency, the technology can allow staff to check out stock by barcode and update inventory immediately by using a warehouse management system and a robot.

On the marketing front, technology can increase cross selling and upselling by personalizing promotions at self-checkout screens. It also allows staff to use data analysis to improve product exposure by membership level.

Johnson acknowledged that many companies face a hurdle in wanting to collaborate with technology, but, "We (technology providers) can understand what you want exactly. This is one of those situations where you don't know until you start playing with it."

To watch the webinar, click here.


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