Are you ready for retail's new user interface?

Welcome to Salesforce’s Retail Roundup! In each issue, we spotlight the retail industry’s hits and misses, hot topics, and hype.

We’re already thinking about the holiday shopping season. It’s just around the corner in retail time! The retailers we spoke to want to amp up AI use to power innovative marketing campaigns, connected (and conversational) commerce, and hyper-attentive service this year. Why? Because AI influenced $199 billion in holiday orders in 2023. 

But if you want a holiday-ready AI strategy, you need to start NOW. This month, we share the results of our AI in retail survey. Read on to learn the five top tactics retailers are using to successfully (and quickly) deploy AI.

Retail tackles AI for the win!

Where are you with your AI strategy? Are you crawling, walking, or running?

We wondered where retailers were focusing their time and energy when it came to incorporating generative AI in their business. So our Industry Insights team, in collaboration with the Retail AI Council, talked to 1,390 retail executives around the world. 

The result? Retail Insights: How the Industry is Approaching Generative AI. 

Here’s what we learned:

• 20% of retailers are already seeing benefits from using generative AI
• 50% say improving the customer experience is the main focus of their generative AI strategy
• 34% say customer service is the most important function to address with generative AI
• 50% of tasks done by generative AI will require human collaboration
• 62% have guidelines to address transparency, data security, and privacy. 

The biggest challenge? Siloed data. High-quality data is essential for fueling accurate, relevant output from AI models. But retailers have data scattered across an average of 44 customer engagement systems. In fact, while 67% said they can capture data, only 40% can use data to make decisions. 

It’s never been more important to unify your trusted data and give everyone in the organization access. If we learned one thing from our AI research, it’s that retailers need to get back to basics–like reviewing your data strategy– if you want to accelerate AI initiatives. 

In our survey, we identified these common actions fueling successful retail AI strategies:

• Focus AI initiatives on improving the customer experience.
• Clean up your data - it’s the foundation of AI-powered insights.
• Embed AI in the workflow: Start with the applications you already use.
• Keep humans in the loop to oversee and collaborate with AI.
• Start with practical use cases to make the most headway.

Do you have questions? We can help:

For an in-depth look at how retailers around the world are thinking through these themes, download the free report.

And if you’re ready to tackle the five top tactics for developing your successful retail AI strategy? Read this blog.

Industry Insider - Jenna Flateman Posner , CDO, Solo Brands

Retail Checkout

Need some inspiration for practical use cases? Check out:

• How AI-powered conversational commerce hyper-personalizes online shopping.
• How AI saves your marketing team time and money.
• How AI helps your customer service team do more with less.

Retail Q&A

What is your #1 use case for generative AI in retail?

Join the conversation! Drop a comment below to let us know.

Did you find these retail insights helpful? Share this newsletter with your network!

This newsletter was curated by Patricia Staino , Editorial Lead at Salesforce.