Understand how AI can boost sales on key retail dates

The year is not over yet, but it is already difficult to imagine any technology that attracts more attention than artificial intelligence. Even though it was not created effectively in 2023 – in fact it has been developed, even if experimentally, since the 1950s – it is undeniable that the last 12 months have been marked by the speed, repercussion and popularization of its disruptive potential.

When we evaluate its use in retail, there is no denying that we are still facing an incipient reality and, until now, little transformative in fact. In fact, this scenario is not surprising, as the sector has always been recognized for its delay in implementing the use of technology compared to other areas. However, this history does not necessarily mean that retail chains should stop taking advantage of the efficiency gains that it is capable of providing, especially during relevant commercial periods, such as Black Friday and Christmas, which require greater engagement from the workforce. of sales.

Obviously, when I say this, I don’t mean that players in the segment should race against time to implement them within a few days of these commercial dates. However, I believe that it is now perfectly possible to test and learn its limits in order to adopt them once and for all in sales force engagement from 2024 onwards.

Trained with the aim of replacing human activities, especially focused on analytical and strategic skills, the current speed of AI to analyze and categorize data today already surpasses – by far – humans. However, it is important to consider the ethical issues and limitations of AI in retail. While it offers efficiency and personalized insights, it can also result in sensitive issues like data bias and privacy concerns. The industry needs to ensure responsible use of technology, from training models to ensuring customer information is secure and well used.

Thanks to it, for example, today sector managers can have a much broader and deeper view of the habits and behaviors of their consumers. This means, therefore, that the technology optimizes the management of data related to customers and their purchases, providing valuable inputs to formulate assertive actions and campaigns aimed at increasing sell-out.

Not only that, the combination of increasingly efficient information, added to the greater power of LLMs technology (Large Scale Language Models), an Artificial Intelligence model created to understand and generate texts, results in an exuberant assistant for the retail sector when interacting and getting closer to customers.

Passed the rigorous Turing test, in which the computer needs to maintain a conversation with a human being for five minutes without letting them realize that they are talking to a machine, ChatGPT, today the largest tool on the market, makes it possible for stores approach your customers in a clustered way – a technique in which there is a grouping of different distinct data that are later categorized. Thus, distance channels end up becoming a much more assertive and attractive sales and communication platform for clientele or potential consumers.

Furthermore, the impact of technology capabilities on the internal management of stores must also be highlighted. One example is better management by managers over salespeople. Thanks to it, the leader can improve interaction with subordinates in order to extract, train and guide each of them to intensify stock turnover.

Going even further, AI can also identify when a commodity is out of stock or about to go out of stock. By being able to identify output patterns of a product based on its sales history, the use of solutions that adopt technology contribute to faster replenishment of items – an extremely fundamental pillar for the most important commercial dates of the year.

With all the examples exposed, we can say that AI will effectively bring complete intelligence to the sector. Even though its use is not yet widespread among retail chains today, there is no longer any doubt that in the increasingly near future the tool will be responsible for bringing greater clustering and assertiveness to businesses. Whoever takes the lead in this AI race will undoubtedly increase the chances of leaving the competition behind, especially during the biggest commercial dates.

*Jansen Moreira is CEO and founder of Incentive.me, technology startup for managing sales incentive campaigns. Graduated in Industrial Design from PUC-Rio, he also has an MBA in Marketing and Customer Management from Universidade Gama Filho.