Robots for Retail

As robots increasingly move from warehouses to shopfronts, embedding Artificial Intelligence (AI) in them will allow retailers to dramatically transform their customer interactions. While a basic sensor-based robot can bring customers what they are looking for, an AI-led robot can offer personalized product recommendations. The robot’s ‘advice’ is invariably driven by analytical insights gleaned by combining data such as customers’ age and location with their purchase histories.

Pepper, a humanoid robot driven by AI, is a good example of how the convergence of AI and robotics can drive customer engagement and experience. The robot can be preprogrammed to chat with customers, answer their questions and give directions. The manufacturer, SoftBank Robotics, claims that Pepper can also recognize human emotions. AI also enables it to use the tone of a customer’s voice to assess whether they are happy or sad. At a pilot conducted for Pepper at B8ta in California, U.S., the tech retail store witnessed a 70 percent rise in footfalls.

Robots such as Pepper can use their robotic arms to pick out merchandise that customers choose through touch screens in the store. They can help retailers save on store space by shelving merchandise vertically. Clothing outlets can also use robots to quickly fetch items through the store’s mobile app to customers in dressing rooms. Customers can order and pay for what they pick up before leaving the dressing room.

As the digital revolution in retail gathers steam, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), AI and big data are intersecting to personalize customers’ shopping experiences. Retailers can use these technologies to ingest customer intelligence into in-store and out-ofstore promotional activities to optimize product assortments.