#retail-ai

#retail-ai

It feels like an episode of The Jetsons come to life, but the truth is that the AI boom has officially entered the physical world. Most of us interact with artificial intelligence through screens- Gemini drafts our emails, ChatGPT summarizes our docs-but behind the scenes, engineers are racing to give AI hands and feet. Robots already pack boxes in warehouses and make guacamole in fast-food kitchens. Soon, they will be washing dishes, taking care of pets, and performing your manicure.

Retailers, especially larger companies, recognize the importance of artificial intelligence and agentic commerce, and plan to make that a reality this year, Srjana Balraj, global head, unified commerce platform at TCS told American Banker. "If you are not visible in the [AI] chat interface, you are going to lose the customer eventually," Balraj said. "The work started last year and two years back based on the maturity of where retailers are.

Reactive personalization is being replaced by predictive intent engines. Instead of waiting for a customer to browse, AI anticipates the customer's next wants based on contextual data like weather, life events, and even local cultural moments. For example, as outdoor searches tick upward in specific regions, retailers surface camping gear. The upside is deeper relevance. As with every trend, there are risks. Here, if the timing is too perfect, the relevance can feel intrusive to the customer.

That's because most top AI companies - like OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, or Meta - operate in a primarily virtual space, processing unfathomably complex rivers of information into more digital information. AI-adjacent companies like Nvidia, Intel, and Oracle focus on providing the physical infrastructure upon which the AI machines function. Then there are the companies that are using digital intelligence to deliver physical results through automation and augmented experiences, like Tesla and Amazon.