What the Future of Shopping Looks Like with Generative AI in Retail
What if your next trip to Target, Costco, or Walmart involved cherry-picking items from a bespoke selection of products compiled just for you?
That reality could be here sooner than most shoppers realize too, and it’s all due to generative artificial intelligence (AI).
Here’s why, with a closer look at:
How Retailers Are Using Generative AI Right Now
Generative AI in Retail & Virtual Try-On Experiences
Potential Barriers & Challenges to Greater Use of Generative AI in Retail
How Retailers Are Using Generative AI Right Now
Effective at pattern recognition, generative AI is a radically powerful tool that relies on machine learning and specific inputs to create all-new content that fits certain patterns, with the ability to do so across multiple content formats, like text, 3D renderings, video, and more.
While generative AI has both disrupted and advanced several industries, its retail applications have the potential to totally alter the shopping and customer experience. That’s because retailers across several niches have already implemented generative AI to do the following.
Whether or not you’ve recognized these forms of generative AI in retail, there’s one application that’s practically impossible to ignore, and that’s the use of virtual try-on solutions.
Generative AI in Retail & Virtual Try-On Options
Realistic renderings of what you’d look like wearing certain items could fundamentally shift what the shopping experience looks and feels like.
Leading the charge on virtual try-on options are some heavy hitters in the retail world, including (and not limited to):
As retailers continue to trailblaze with generative AI applications, more exciting uses could become part of our everyday shopping experiences.
Moreover, the retail sector as a whole could unearth new opportunities for power players in other industries to embrace generative AI technology with extraordinary success. For instance, cosmetic surgeons could use generative AI to model surgical results on patients, and home contractors could use generative AI to render remodel options and outcomes in an entirely novel manner.
Potential Barriers & Challenges to Greater Use of Generative AI in Retail
If generative AI has the power to do so much for retailers, their bottom line, and their customers, why haven’t more stores and brands fully embraced it yet?
There could be a handful of hurdles standing in the way of more widespread proliferation of generative AI in retail. Some of those obstacles include:
While these challenges can be as uniquely complex as the applications of generative AI, one thing’s for sure — the train has already left the station in terms of generative AI in retail.
Forward-thinking brands that find ways to welcome and take advantage of this technology will likely become (or remain) retail titans for years to come.