Artificial Intelligence’s Role in E-Commerce
The future applications of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are limitless. For example, the technology is currently playing a major role in shaping the automotive industry with the emergence of self-driving cars. AI is also expected to seep into and influence the e-commerce space.
Artificial Intelligence Today
All of the artificial intelligence that you interact with in your life currently is a form of weak AI. Weak AI focuses on a single task, where as strong AI, has a consciousness. Netflix utilizes this technology to give you movie recommendations, Siri is a form of this technology as are the characters in some video games.
Personalizing E-Commerce
Weak AI has already bled into the e-commerce space. As aforementioned, Netflix uses artificial intelligence to provide its users recommendations based on their prior viewing history. Other, more traditional retailers are experimenting with this technology to also bring their users recommendations within their industry. For example, Under Armour uses IBM’s AI “Watson”, to create a personalized shopping experience based on the health and exercise patterns of the shopper.
The Future of the Salesman
Aside from creating recommendations based on each individual user, you can expect to interact with more virtual salesmen online. As artificial intelligence becomes more widely adopted by retailers, human interaction will be further removed from online shopping. Today, we can type into a chat box where a representative will help us with any questions we may have. Soon, artificial intelligence will be analyzing big data to give us more accurate and personalized answers.
In conclusion, artificial Intelligence is one of the more exciting forms of emerging technology. Its applications are far reaching and we can expect to see AI playing a larger role within our daily lives. As far as e-commerce is concerned, this technology will help create a better customer experience and offer better service effectively driving up conversion rates.
