Google Cloud survey for NRF 24 reveals generative AI a priority for retail decision makers

Ahead of NRF 2024 next week, Google Cloud has released new research commissioned from NewtonX that shows 81% of UK retail decision-makers feel an urgency to adopt generative AI in their business, with over half ready to deploy it in the coming year. US findings are expected to be unveiled at the show running 14-16 January next week in New York City.

The anonymous online survey carried out last quarter spoke to 104 UK C-suite executives (274 in the US), with information technology leads and business development managers to the fore.

All respondents were required to have cloud decision-making capacity and at least some demonstrable knowledge of generative AI in order to participate and share how they plan to deploy generative AI.

Apart from the 81% that urgently want to deploy the technology, other key findings from the report include:

Over half (55%) feel ready to deploy generative AI technology today, without delay.
80% anticipate their organisations will start prioritising hiring data scientists, with a 10% jump in numbers predicted. Machine learning engineers (65%) are only popular targets to hire, alongside prompt engineers (45%) and AI-related product managers and developers (76% want to do this).

Generative AI emerged as one of the fastest-growing technologies last year, with retailers moving quickly to pilot and explore its automation, service and efficiency capabilities.

This year, they want to go beyond that. The majority (71%) of surveyed retail decision-makers believe generative AI can now be practically deployed in their business and 82% believe it will impact their industry in the next 12 months.

Nearly all (97%) of these surveyed in the UK said that generative AI will have an impact on customer experience (CX). Similar findings are expected from the US results due to be unveiled next week at the NRF 24 show in New York.

“Generative AI is fast becoming a key solution to an array of business challenges,” said Alex Rutter, Director of Retail, Google Cloud UK&I, speaking about the findings in his area.

“Last year, retailers in the UK like John Lewis and GymShark, began to experiment with this technology, finding new ways to engage customers, optimise operations and boost productivity. The uptake of generative AI for the industry will be even greater in 2024, as businesses progressively turn to AI to fuel their next phase of growth.”

Reinvention & automation
UK retailers see potential for measurable change across their business, with 69% of the surveyed decision-makers saying they believe generative AI is a key way to reinvent themselves. After initiating deployments in 2023, 64% felt satisfied with the performance and outcomes of their initial projects.

Retail leaders have also signalled a strong sense and understanding of where this new technology can be most impactful in their industry. Research respondents had high confidence that generative AI is poised to fundamentally change CX – 26% of retailers have either started, or already fully deployed, generative AI for customer service automation purposes.

Generative AI expected to be impactful in five key areas
In the year ahead, the survey reveals five main anticipated use cases for generative AI in 2024, with retailers targeting:

Customer Service Automation: 66% of respondents want to use generative AI to streamline customer service with less human intervention by providing conversation summaries, automating tasks, and ultimately driving conversion. This could include appointment scheduling, transactions, and inquiry resolutions.
Product Descriptions: 48% of respondents want to use generative AI to accelerate product categorisation and generate great customer-centric marketing copy.
Creative Assistance: 39% of respondents want to use generative AI to empower retail creative teams to curate bespoke images and creative content for campaigns and editorial placements. AI can also enable 1:1 personalisation.
Sentiment Analysis: 43% of retail decision-makers said they want to use it to analyse emotional sentiments in customer feedback.
Conversational Commerce: 46% of retail decision-makers want to use generative AI to address shopper inquiries with interactive responses beyond just product recommendations.