Should retailers be aggressive or patient at this point in investing in enabling retail workers with AI? What’s causing the apparent slow pace of investment? What’s your overall advice to retailers around applying AI to their workforce and work processes?
Interactive Edge’s CEO, Zel Bianco comments:
They have two choices; wait to see what others do and then decide how to proceed or jump in now and be the innovator. First-mover advantage can make a big difference and waiting while others jump in may make it more challenging to catch up down the road. I believe that if a retailer has the resources — both in people and money — they should invest now as the lessons they will learn will allow them to leapfrog their competition. Look at who the leaders are now and you will see the same ones are at the top of the list in AI as well as other experiments that sometimes work and sometimes do not. Fail fast, as they say.