Rise of the e-commerce industry courtesy of AI
By Utkarsh Gupta, Managing Director,
Artificial intelligence is often seen as a supplement to, rather than a substitute for, human
intelligence and resourcefulness. These days, if you use any of the digital platforms—especially
social media—you probably have experienced product or service upselling from a variety of
firms on your page. For instance, artificial intelligence (AI) technology powers these product
suggestions.
Companies have gone full throttle with AI implementation in their backend programming, with
the help of automated technology, processing large amounts of data within a few minutes to
provide business-based insightful information. AI has already changed the landscape of the e-
commerce sector in India.
Using natural language processing to narrow, contextualize and improve the search results for
online shoppers to create a better shopping experience, AI is creating a strong competitive edge
for businesses driven via e-commerce. AI tools have been developed to create aggressive re-
targeting campaigns, thereby not missing any prospective customers. From helping identify a
prospective customer to answering online queries, conversations via chatbot, and re-targeting,
AI-driven e-commerce is the future, which is happening now.
From buying groceries, and medicines to home appliances, there has been tremendous growth
in this sector which now has become the new normal. Many titans have disappeared from the
market while many digitally transformed their businesses. Digital agility created by such
transformations and enabled further by AI is going to improve the product offerings, and service
delivery and bring up the satisfaction score of the consumers. The e-commerce industry has
started accelerating the technological revolution and started establishing its presence in the
virtual world where we have seen more launches of websites, applications, and other digital
portals which are AI-enabled.
The virtual world never shuts down and is open 24×7 and customers can now shop any day, at
any time as per their convenience, and expect availability and dedicated service from the
organization’s customer support team. AI is an important way to deliver the attentive 24×7
service that shoppers now expect.
With predictive marketing at your fingertips, AI-powered platforms can forecast buying decisions
by observing their buying patterns and evaluating the consumer buying journeys. Advanced
features such as voice or facial recognition interfaces help in understanding the customer better
to push products which induce buying, post understanding user experience. With real-time data
made available, the personalization of these online purchases is made available and easy to
track.
Supply chain management has become a vital strategic opportunity to keep organizations
competitive and this statement has taken even more precedence. Since the e-commerce sector
has a tremendous dependency on robust supply chain management, AI technology facilitates
delivery to the consumers as per the dedicated time. In supply chain delivery, every mile and
minute matters, therefore automated systems have accelerated traditional warehouse
procedures. The details of the customers, drivers, and vehicles have been submitted to the
machine, which then uses algorithms to create the most optimal routes and thus make timely
delivery. Inventory management has become more complex due to real-time pictures of the
available items in the inventory. With the help of AI, it delivers many advanced solutions to
inventory managers and allows them to manage the process more efficiently.
AI and e-commerce are matches made in heaven and AI in e-commerce offers umpteen
benefits in building a robust business eco-system and will be the only way e-commerce
companies can survive, grow stronger, and remain competitively ahead.
