Streaming platforms like to make recommendations based on your viewing habits, hoping you’ll stick with the platform. Currently, most of those recommendations are based on genre — if you’ve seen a horror movie, it’ll likely recommend other horror movies. But we humans aren’t like that. We’re more complex. Generative AI Now that complexity has started to be addressed.
Sunil Rao, Executive Vice President and Head of Analysis for the Americas customer experience The CEO of management company Merkle said in our webinar last week that for a certain streaming platform, they used GenAI to analyze the platform’s video content at a micro level, understanding the emotions and actions, themes and tone in a film or episode. He said this helped them match content and ads to audience preferences with unprecedented accuracy. “We are seeing a 21% improvement in ad performance and a 45% improvement in engagement rates,” Sunil said. Which means that Hey Not only is it capable of boosting business metrics, but it’s also capable of promoting a more satisfying experience for viewers.
The combination of AI and real-time data analytics is opening up exciting new dimensions in retail and customer service. Industry leaders are using these technologies to redefine customer experiences and create personalized interactions that were once the stuff of science fiction. And at the webinar, the consensus was clear: AI, especially GenAI, is not just another passing trend but a transformative force in customer engagement.
AI in Retail
“I’m very bullish on AI,” said Vineet Mehta, general manager of enterprise technology at Kmart and Target Australia. He said AI’s real power lies in its ability to enhance existing analytical and digital capabilities, acting as “an extra turbo mode on your engine”.
Kmart Australia has deployed AI-powered chatbots for customer service, resulting in 30% of calls being handled without human intervention. AI is also revolutionizing product design and inventory management. Vineet explained how Kmart is using AI with 3D design tools to streamline the manufacturing of its private label products. “We can now change colours instantly,” he said, highlighting the agility it brings to the design process.
In physical stores, AI is taking over roles that were once reserved for human employees. Kmart has introduced robots that roam the store’s aisles, and capture inventory data in real time. The company is also exploring AI applications in loss prevention by using image recognition to detect potential theft scenarios in real time.
be careful
However, the road to AI integration comes with challenges. Naveen Dhananjay, chief solutions officer at Merkle, emphasized the need for strong governance and ethical considerations in AI deployment. “We definitely need some quantitative measures,” he said, pointing out the importance of metrics related to bias detection and model observability.
Data privacy and security remain paramount concerns as companies continue to push the boundaries of personalization. Naveen highlighted the risks of “prompt hacking” in large language models, where vulnerabilities can potentially expose sensitive information. Hackers could potentially use carefully crafted prompts to trick LLMs into performing unintended actions. To mitigate these risks, Merkle has a three-pronged approach involving experimentation, business validation, and legal approval for AI initiatives.
Experts also stressed the importance of data readiness in successfully implementing AI solutions. “Having the right curated data in one place, integrated in a way that we can use it to feed these algorithms in a production capacity, has been a challenge,” Sunil said. He estimated that even for mature organizations, it could take several months to make their data infrastructure AI-ready.
Vineet cautioned against deploying AI without proper testing, especially in customer-facing applications. “There is very little difference between winning a customer and losing a customer,” he warned.
Despite these challenges, there is no denying the potential of AI in improving the customer experience. From creating synthetic customer profiles for more accurate marketing to enabling natural language interactions with complex data sets, AI is opening up new possibilities for businesses to better understand and serve their customers.
India for the world
The impact of these advancements extends beyond individual companies to entire industries and economies. With its rich talent pool in data analytics and AI, India is well positioned to play a key role in this transformation. Global Competence Centres (GCCs) in India not only support AI initiatives with global impact, but often lead them as well.
“Most of the GCCs are doing it end-to-end. They are the thought leaders, they are driving innovation, they are the pool of talent, and they are building solutions,” Sunil said.
