AI in retail is a disciplined way to make better, faster, auditable decisions across the commerce lifecycle - how you attract, convert, price, fulfil, serve, and protect - using data, machine learning, and governed automation. It is not a single tool; it’s an operating layer that sits on your data and activates insight in real time across channels.
What it actually covers
- Customer understanding & personalization — recommendations, intent‑aware search, content targeting, next‑best‑offer/next‑best‑action.
- Pricing, promotion & merchandising optimization — dynamic pricing within business constraints, promo effectiveness, assortment and markdown optimization.
- Demand, supply & inventory planning — demand forecasting, auto‑replenishment, allocation, back‑order risk, returns optimization.
- Service & sales acceleration — guided selling, chat/voice assistants, agent assist, order‑status and returns automation.
- Risk, fraud & loss prevention — checkout/transaction risk scoring, abuse detection, computer‑vision shelf and shrink control.
- Compliance & brand integrity — privacy and PCI controls, accessibility checks, product/content governance, audit trails.