June 4, 2024 • 33 mins
Since the dawn of civilization, there have always been markets where people gather to purchase essentials and luxuries. But shopping has evolved dramatically since the days of the early bazaars, and the advent of new AI technology will shape the future of retail even more by making shopping easier, seamless and exciting for customers. Intel consumer industry specialist Shailesh Chaudhry and AI expert Aykut Dengi offer their insights into what the future holds for in-person retail, and how AI-enhanced technology can streamline the shopping experience and cut down on theft, waste and losses for business owners.
Learn more about how Intel is leading the charge in the AI Revolution at intel.com/AIeverywhere
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:04):
Since the dawn of civilization, there have always been places
and markets where people gather to purchase essentials and luxuries.
The earliest bazaars are believed to have originated in ancient Persia,
and the first shopping mall is widely considered to be
a Trajan's market, which housed more than one hundred and
fifty shops and was built around one hundred AD, not
(00:25):
far from the Roman Colosseum. Of course, shopping has evolved
a lot since the days of ancient Rome, but the
appeal of visiting your favorite store has remained unchanged over time.
And despite the ways that online retail has transformed the
way we shop, new technology has revitalized the brick and
mortar shopping experience, with retailers eager to create unique spaces
(00:48):
where they can connect customers with products in person and
reduce product theft. But what does the future hold for
the shopping experience as we witness the rejuvenation of in
person retail, and what can retailers do to create a
more engaging and exciting experience for customers. Welcome to Technically Speak,
(01:09):
an Intel podcast produced by iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio in partnership
with Intel In every episode, we explore how AI innovations
are changing the world and revolutionizing the way we live. Hey,
then I'm grand class. Regular listeners know that in the
past we've covered topics like how AI impacts healthcare and
(01:30):
urban planning. This season, but now we're headed into the
world of retail, where online director consumer brands are seeking
innovative spaces to connect customers with products in person, and
retailers are eager to remain competitive by creating a frictionless
customer experience. We wanted to understand how technology is helping
to improve the retail space, making shopping easier, seamless, and exciting.
(01:54):
In this episode, we will focus on what shopping looks
like with an AI enhanced self service check out. Just
imagine a life without barcodes and smart technology that helps
retailers attract and retain consumers. Today, we'll continue our journey
of discovery into Intel's innovative ideas for the future and
how they will impact something as steadfast as retail. But
(02:17):
before we go any further, let's welcome our guests. Joining
us today is Shoalie's Childry, the general manager of Consumer
Industries at Intel and an expert in the intersection of
technology and the retail, banking, hospitality, and quick serve restaurant industries.
His team at Intel is responsible for delivering innovative technological
(02:38):
solutions and tools and building an ecosystem of partners to
scale those solutions. Welcome to the show, Shalish.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Thank you, Graham. I'm super excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Also joining us is a Kert Denghi, the co founder
and CEO of Radius AI, a pioneer in transforming retail
operations with advanced human centric AI solutions. Acold also founded
the Internet of Things Collaboratory at Arizona State University in
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Welcome to you, too, Acold. Thank you Greg. It's a
pleasure to be part of the show.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I think we'll start with a little bit of background
on how retail has changed during the Internet era. Shelley
shall begin with you. What kind of shift have we
seen over the past two decades when it comes to
people opting for online shopping over in person shopping in
breaking mortar stores?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Thank you Graham.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Before starting about how Internet has changed retail, I like
to stab back at what I see as the core
retail experience. It's really a human experience. So from the
dawn of retail, there's something fundamental about retail that has
not changed, and that's about that experience. It's how we
(03:57):
feel after we have conducted the shopping, so the commerce
and the transaction that comes later. And as we have
progressed through all the developments, there have been new tools
and capabilities and technologies and those have shaped our expectations.
And that is exactly what has happened to Internet era as well.
(04:19):
So while we're happy shopping and tradition more Internet it
pvided a different technology which was pervasive in all aspects
of our life, and we carried those expectations in retail
as well. And for us it's just a different means
of shopping. And let's be honest, depending on our needs,
(04:40):
sometimes it's just way more convenient to shop online. And
it's not just about certain products that have better suit
it for online shopping. Same product at one moment, I'm
going to go buy in a physical restore, the other time,
I'm just going to go on internet. And as we've
all seen, retailers initially fail to see that. They saw
(05:02):
Internet just as a tool and technology that are separate.
They saw it as a competition as opposed to seeing
it as something that can enhance and augument retail experiences.
So initially a lot of us shifted to internet shopping
because that's where our needs are better met. But through
that twenty a decade, physical retailers started to see that's
(05:25):
not just a technology and they can just have a website,
and now they can compete with the online retailers. They
have integrated Internet into their physical operations. And now we've
also seen the retailers who started as pure prey online retailers,
they've started to open physical stores. So since then we
(05:45):
have reached what I call a steady state after initial
what I call the gloom and doom. I started in
retail industry in two thousand and eight, and I remember
everyone was predicting the death of physical retail, and even
then I had this conviction about this coat experience. And
then we started off at Intel. Our journey retail is
(06:06):
how we can bring all these great technologies and the
experience that are online, but deliver and working with retailers
and our technology partners that I could and others so
that the enhances and complements physical retail. And that's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, and we're going to talk a little bit about
the technology side of things and particularly the role of AI.
But I would like your thoughts about the last two
decades of how we've evolved, you know, from brix and
mortar stores to online and there I think there is
probably a shift back to the brick and mortar stores.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I agree with Shilesh that we've seen exciting developments in retail.
Retail is one of the most complex human activities, and
I actually really enjoy being in retail because it's not
only human, it's also social. There is a complex web
of people who work together to create this experience. But
(07:04):
people missed, especially during the pandemic, they realized they missed
the social experience they missed going into a store interacting
with humans, and retailers also saw that the characteristics of
shopping in person may actually be more favorable for their
financial goals as well. People who shop in stores may
(07:27):
not return things as often as they do in detail,
and that is one of the biggest expenses in online shopping.
They may actually be more satisfied with their purchases because
they talked about it to store clerk and they interacted
with the other people in a store, So creating an experience,
(07:49):
a positive experience in the store has become more important
once again. Besides keeping the store efficient and profit fitable,
we see once again gaining speed the trend of making
customers want to go back every day.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Now you've heard Akould mention some of the social impacts
of the COVID nineteen pandemic, but I want to dig
a little deeper on its implications for the retail industry.
It's no surprise that some small retailers in your community
didn't survive the pandemic. Some of those businesses simply couldn't
pivot from their in person to online retail fast enough
(08:31):
to save their shop, or they didn't have the resources
to make the change at all. But the businesses that
did survive were able to invest in technology that allowed
them to make online retail easy and accessible. These companies
came out on the other side of the pandemic not
just alive, but stronger. With this in mind, I asked Akut,
what have you seen from companies that are investing in
(08:52):
technology to help fortify their retail business.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
The pandemic changed human behavior, and we saw that impact
retailers differently and to rapidly adapt to behavioral change, you
need data and this is one of the ways that
technology help retailers. So if you have consistent, objective data
(09:18):
to guide your decisions, then you adapt faster, learning and
changing your processes and procedures, adapting to the market as
part of the system, as opposed to people saying now
we have to change. Change becomes part of your culture.
And as Charlie said, right now, the arrow is pointing
(09:41):
towards increasing the productivity of the people you have because
you cannot hire too many of them. Retailers that are
rapidly expanding right now, but one of the things they
don't want to drop is the customer experience. So you
want to automate things that are not visus to the
customer that is behind the desk, and you want to
(10:04):
allow the employee to personally interact with the customers so
that they get that in person experience so that they
want to come back.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, I would like to talk a little bit more
about the technology specifically, what would the customers feel, what
would they experience that would be different, whether it be price,
better information, better stock availability. What are some of the
tangible things that a person like myself just walking into
a store would actually experience.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So all of the questions you've post I think exactly
that's what the role of technology is. However, I see
the technology as something that will augment enhance existing experiences.
As an example, in all days, the only way I
would get introduced to products, new products was through stores
(11:00):
were the curators of the product. That is not true anymore.
We are introduced to new products through social media channels,
through all sorts of other technology. Then we go in
the stores. I'm not necessarily a lot of I'm looking
for that product in the store. I already know it.
I probably have done a lot of research as well,
so I'm not just relying on the associate to tell
(11:23):
me everything about too often because I'm only focused on
that one product. So I know a lot more than
an associate probably can because he or she has to
worry about thousands of fiscus in the store. So now
the focus is not so much about curating the products
more about meeting my needs there. So maybe when I
(11:43):
walk in the store, can you help me find the
product easily? Technology can help to make sure that they
have the right products in the store. Because now with
artificial intelligence supply chains will be way more efficient. Technology
like computer vision or RFID can help you to make
(12:03):
sure that you have products on the shelf. Technology can
also make sure that you are able to deliver more
personalized experience to shopper in all kinds of retail setting,
not just high end stores.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
So I want to point out that there are different
types of customers and for some customers this omnichannel experience
where they enhance their experience through online knowledge is very important,
and sometimes we become a different customer ourselves at different days.
For instance, sometimes I'm in a hurry. I'm there just
(12:38):
to find one thing, and I really want to know
where exactly it's in the store, and I want to
just start there get it come out. There are other
times when I want to be at my leisure, I
want to discover new things. And for the retailer also,
they want to inspire their customers and lead them to
(12:59):
spontaneous purchases. So you want to create an experience for
those people who have time in their heads. It becomes
a challenge, of course to provide these different types of
experience all at the same time in the same store.
So given this challenge, you need to customize technology to
(13:20):
the different needs. I want to point out some of
the technology that you actually want to be invisible. You
put it there, it makes life easier, but the employees
or the customers don't even need to think about it.
So taking such a technology and making it disappear is
(13:41):
one of the goals of technology companies, and a lot
goes in the background of making that possible. Artificial intelligence
at its best is one of the empowering technologies that
makes it possible, and one of the interesting things ABOUTNOLO.
There are different ways it can become visible. For instance,
(14:03):
there's a lag, so you're doing something and you're expecting
your response and it takes forever for it to actually happen.
Why does that happen? Of course, as a customer, I
don't care. I'm just waiting there and it's not responding.
But from a technological point of view, that tells us, well,
maybe there's a communication link right between the store and
(14:25):
the cloud and that's taking a long time to go
and come back. Well, maybe I need to put things
at the edge, meaning the store, right where the customer is,
and then you can take that data that's happening. Whatever
the customer said, or the object they put on the
counter and process it, respond to it there and create
(14:49):
that instant experience so that it disappears because the lag
is the one that alerts to them that there's something
going on there. So that leads us into edge AI,
which is one of the things that huge industry working
all together, has been able to put together recently. It's
(15:10):
right now becoming feasible at actual locations.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Coming up next on Technically Speaking and Intel podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Biggest advances in the last few years, and AI is
technology that learns by itself.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
We'll be right back after a brief message from our
partners at Intel. Welcome back to Technically Speaking an Intel podcast.
I'm here now with Shailish Chowdhry and Akuttinghi. Chalie, I
(15:52):
know that you have the team there at Intel working
on these sorts of smart retail solutions at any that
you can share with us, ones that you're quite excited about.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yes, we're actually working on a wide range of products
and like majority of them are AI. Every retailer today
is interested how they can use AI both to drive
or productivity but also to drive better experience for us
as shoppers. So I see two categories one is some
(16:24):
of the larger retailers, they are in the front edge
of innovation, so they are working on a lot of
what I call pilots and demonstration projects. One of the
examples at the checkout because checkout is one of the
most critical experiences. Also, we're working on the projects which
they call store automation, that has to do with better
(16:45):
visibility the inventory, also the improving receiving and the operations
the pack end. We're also engaged in the projects which
a lot of time gets referred to as last mile delivery,
which is a lot of times they're shopping online that
gets delivered through the physical retail and instead of opening
massive distribution centers, a lot of retailers already have stores
(17:09):
in all around neighborhoods and they're starting to use them
as their fulfillment centers, and they're upgrading a lot of
them to deliver similar experience that some of the larger
online retailers can within half an hour a you ordering
a product and showing up at your door. The third
area we're seeing a lot of interest is on personalization.
(17:30):
So it's just not about mass personalization, it's about individual personalization.
The one I'm really excited about. We cannot name who
that retailer is, but that has to do with search.
In spite of all the advances, Say, if I like
a shirt that you're wearing, grab I don't go buy it.
(17:50):
I have to go through like ten to fifteen searches
to be able to find the same shirt unless I
know exact brand and style. But with advances like Jenney AI,
I should be able to find exact same shirt with
literally one or two prompts. And that's going to be
a game changer on how we shop and where we shop,
(18:12):
but also how retailers are going to deliver the shopping
experience for us.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, so in that scenario, you might get your smartphone out,
take a photo of someone with that shirt, searches for
that vision to all the various local retail stores, and
then be able to deliver it, or you can go
pick it up and try it on and still have
that in person experience.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely in that scenario. The thing when I heard about it,
the word that came to my mind that each and
every one of us will be a walking model. Now,
the social media has made a lot of people influencers,
and that great, we are getting influence, but now everybody's
an influencer, everybody's a.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Model, and I could what are your thoughts around using
computer vision, particularly more towards I guess the checkout experience.
Do you think we could do away with barcodes or
do you think there could be a time where we
could almost go in and walk out and charge our cards.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Well, we're still experimenting as a technology and retailers together
as a team, and also customers as willing participants, are
giving us great feedback. On one end was the vision
of totally friction less checkout, right, so you walk in,
you walk out, and automatically you get charged for whatever
(19:39):
you bought. And we found that people did not respond
very positively to the totally friction less experience. What we
perceived as friction, like that hello from the employee was
not friction. That was actually a positive thing. Don't discard that. Yes,
and you might need help, and who's are to help?
(20:00):
There needs to be somebody to help. So there was
some adjustment there in terms of perception. What do customers
actually want? So you don't want to turn your brick
and mortar store into a glorified vending machine. So on
the other hand, people do not enjoy scanning items either,
so there needs to be some sort of middle ground,
(20:21):
and I think that's the hybrid experience now that is
gaining traction, where we mold the technology into the natural
flow of the store and make each of those steps frictionless.
So picking up the item is frictionless, you actually have
(20:42):
real time inventory, much faster inventory check, and it's accurate.
It starts there and then it goes towards putting your
items and you don't have to scan them. Computer vision
is used to recognize the items immediately, even if you
put twenty of it takes the same amount of time.
You just put it there, and then it may even
(21:04):
actually say hey, that's an age verified item, automatically alerts
the clerk. You don't have to call anybody, and then
they're already there.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
What ACRED is describing this hybrid frictionalist experience that still
provides for human touch when necessary might be the future
of grocery shopping. And I think we can all agree
that an experience like this one will make running errands
or picking up milk and bread on the way home
from work simpler for all of us. But what about
the business owner's tasks? With implementing this frictionless experience. If
(21:39):
we take employees largely out of the equation, do we
also lose some of the oversight that keeps people from
forgetting to scan their items? Does this technology make it
easier for customers to steal from the store? Retail stores
lost and estimated eighty seven billion to theft in the
United States in twenty twenty two, and this could reach
one hundred and fifteen billion by twenty twenty five. So
(22:01):
I asked Shelish about the challenges businesses my face as
they adopt this frictionless experience when it comes to product
loss and product theft.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Very interesting topic and we've been seeing this debate as well.
And Graham, the product loss that a lot of time
gets referred to as shrink has always been part of industry,
So it includes not just the product loss due to theft,
but also a product that gets lost during shipping, during receiving,
(22:35):
so that a lot of different ways that product loss
can happen. Now when it comes to theft, there are
multiple elements there as well. So one is organized crime
and one is just consumer trying to sometimes mislabeled products.
Other times it's just not even scanning products. What does
computervision allows us to do is accurately see a product.
(22:59):
Now you can what product is. You're not just relying
on the barcode that somebody may have switched. So it's
actually in that instance will help you reduce the product loss.
If somebody doesn't scan a product, there's an alert that
gets sent to store associate. So what we are seeing
is in the back of the store. A lot of
loss happens there as well, and you'll be surprised how
(23:21):
in a creator receiving is a part of it, and
computervision technology can help drive the accuracy in the receiving
and further reducing the product class. So these are some
of the early reserves that we have seen in the
pilot and these are all read examples.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, because I was thinking of that trade off between
what you call the customer experience and this computer vision,
because I went to a new self checkout and I
think it detected my hand going over the scanner but
without a product, and it thinks that I didn't scan
it properly, and it kind of alerted the shop as
(23:58):
system next to me. So I guess, as you say,
it is a journey but the positive thing is that
there was a person there. It wasn't like the alarms
and everything and the security guards coming down bearing down
my neme. So is there any day that you've seen
and some of the trends around product loss and product theft,
(24:19):
particularly around that sort of self checkout area.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, we hear from our customers that it is a
top concern of theirs loss in general and not just theft,
as Shylish very aptly described. But one of their biggest
problems is food waste, and it is part of their
business model. It can be improved massively by AI models,
(24:45):
but also alerting the store employees, Hey, that item there
has been sitting there for more than three hours. You
need to remove that so that the quality is preserved,
basically balancing waste and quality at the same time, but
also ringing up the right item. Not everything has a
(25:05):
barcode in a store. So you pick up a hot dog. There'sn't,
thank god, a barcode on the hot dog. So you
picked it up, maybe you put some condiments, maybe that's
price separately, right, ringing that up right now requires the
employee to ask you, what do you have there? Right,
so that already extends the process and the accuracy of
(25:28):
the reporting and so on. I mean, we need to
really for the environment too, we need to lower food waste.
So if you do accurate checkout and you know exactly
what was picked up and you ring it up, then
you improve on waste. So the important thing there is
doing the right thing at the right time, and that
(25:50):
helps your inventory controls, that helps your customer experience, that
helps your shrink.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And Shelly, I just wanted to get a like a
final thought from yourself if you were in the retail
industry and you're a manager there, what's the top issue
or consideration they should be thinking about if they want
to implement this sort of technology that we've been talking
(26:18):
about today. What are some of the challenges that they
need to be on the lookout for. What are some
of the intelligent questions they can ask their vendors to
make sure that they're getting the best value from their
time and money.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Now, that's a great question at a question that comes
up a lot. So I think everybody sees the potential
of what not just computer vision, but AI in general,
will bringing The challenge they're facing is threefour One is
the cost. So in this first stage. Majority of them,
(26:58):
especially with computer vision, are using specialize ecceletors for AI
that are very expensive. The second challenge that comes up
is availability of an ecosystem of technology providers. So while
large detaders have the resources both financial resources but also
(27:19):
the engineers and data scientists to go work on the
concepts that they can try understand the ROI, but majority
of the retailers do not have those resources and they
really need an ecosystem for partners. The third one is
the ROI the time to really get returns on their investment.
(27:39):
Those are the three questions. The good news is I
think they're starting to change and one of the technologies
that I'm excited about that will help with the cost
as well as with the ecosystem is AIPC concept. The
reason I'm excited about this because this is a technology
(28:00):
there's an extension of existing PC technologies and it is
not any specialized hardware. This already runs all of the
applications because in retail store, most of whether you're talking
about point of sale CHAOS or other instare devices. They're
all embedded PCs, so that will significantly reduce the cost
and att as first challenge, but that's also the technology
(28:23):
that a lot of technology products are very familiar with.
Now they have to augment what they're doing rather than reinvite.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Our regular listeners to Technically speaking, might recognize that term CHAI.
Let's just referred to the AIPC, which we covered in
episode three of this season. Aipcs I think represent the
future of computing. They'll incorporate cutting edge AI tech faster
and more effectively than anything we've seen before, and in
relation to today's conversation, they'll play a key role in
(28:54):
a faster, more efficient world of retail. And these aipcs
are relyingt on the Intel Core Ultrapersonessa Wish debuted last
year in twenty twenty three and offers the best AIPC
experience to mobile platforms and right out to the edge,
and it will power more than two hundred and thirty
models of the world's first aipcs. But given how much
of a game changer this Intel tech represents for the
(29:16):
retail industry, I want you to know some of the
challenges business owners would consider when attempting to adopt this.
He's acred with the.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Answer, So focus on the total cost and that will
lead you to Okay, this software vendor works only on
this hardware that is very expensive and custom and is
not available. That's not going to scale out in two
three years. So that's a very important part. And part
(29:48):
of that problem of scaling is adaptability. So a lot
of AI solutions they pilot very well, but then they
stumble on expanding two thousand locations. So pay attention to
whether the technology you're selecting has scaled out, has the
adaptive features that is prerequisite, and then how expensive is
(30:11):
it to this machine? Right? So let's say you have
a computer vision technology that recognizes products, but as a retailer,
you have new products coming in and their faces changes
all the time and so on, and why are you
going to have to have someone in the back constantly
scanning items and teaching the device so that it remains
(30:33):
accurate or does the technology automatically get to learn. So
that's the biggest advances in the last few years in
AI is technology that learns by itself and knows what
it doesn't look. So basically you need to evaluate the
technology what it tries to do, with all its failure
(30:54):
mechanisms and all the edge cases right, and select the
technology that adapts to the environment and during the pandemic,
we also learned things can change in a hurry, and
will your technology adapt with you with the circumstances. Can
it actually work outside of the very narrow path that
(31:18):
it was done for so that it continues being useful
over the lifetime of a product. Retailers have long lifetime
expectations for their technology. The technology has to last five
ten years. Both the hardware and the software needs to
be resilient work in a store environment, not be overly
(31:41):
fickle and robust. So that's very important to evaluate before
you actually choose the technology.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Okay, I think I've learned a lot, and hopefully all
listeners have as well. I could and Shaley, thanks very
much for your time.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Thank you Graham, Thank you Graham.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you to Shalley's childry A Denghi for their expertise
in today's episode of Technically Speaking. The advent of trading
between each other has been the cornerstone of our civilization
and I think one of the main reasons for our
advancement as a human race. Retail will continue to be
a social experience, and any technology that can help bring
(32:19):
people together and harmoniously trade with one another will continue
to drive our society positively into the future. The advancement
in AI and in particular computer vision will help all
businesses large and small, be able to serve their customers
better by making retail interactions more meaningful for the owners,
(32:39):
it will allow them to serve their customers at a
higher standard, even if they are challenges with staff shortfalls.
For those with retail stores, the implementation of AI can
seem daunting, but you can always try to experiment with
the technology discussed in today's episode at a small scale.
This is so you can continue to build confidence and
(32:59):
continue need to learn. Remember you are the expert in
your field. AI is there to lift you to the
next level. In our next episode, we will look at
how AI is helping improve manufacturing holiday So join us
on June eighteenth or the next edition of Technically Speaking
and Intel podcast. Technically Speaking was produced by Ruby Studio
(33:25):
from iHeartRadio in partnership with Intel and hosted by me
Graham Class. Our executive producer is Molly Sosher, our EP
of Post Production is James Foster, and our supervising producer
is Nikia Swinton. This episode was edited by Sierra Spreen
and written by nick Firschel,
Since the dawn of civilization, there have always been places
and markets where people gather to purchase essentials and luxuries.
The earliest bazaars are believed to have originated in ancient Persia,
and the first shopping mall is widely considered to be
a Trajan's market, which housed more than one hundred and
fifty shops and was built around one hundred AD, not
(00:25):
far from the Roman Colosseum. Of course, shopping has evolved
a lot since the days of ancient Rome, but the
appeal of visiting your favorite store has remained unchanged over time.
And despite the ways that online retail has transformed the
way we shop, new technology has revitalized the brick and
mortar shopping experience, with retailers eager to create unique spaces
(00:48):
where they can connect customers with products in person and
reduce product theft. But what does the future hold for
the shopping experience as we witness the rejuvenation of in
person retail, and what can retailers do to create a
more engaging and exciting experience for customers. Welcome to Technically Speak,
(01:09):
an Intel podcast produced by iHeartMedia's Ruby Studio in partnership
with Intel In every episode, we explore how AI innovations
are changing the world and revolutionizing the way we live. Hey,
then I'm grand class. Regular listeners know that in the
past we've covered topics like how AI impacts healthcare and
(01:30):
urban planning. This season, but now we're headed into the
world of retail, where online director consumer brands are seeking
innovative spaces to connect customers with products in person, and
retailers are eager to remain competitive by creating a frictionless
customer experience. We wanted to understand how technology is helping
to improve the retail space, making shopping easier, seamless, and exciting.
(01:54):
In this episode, we will focus on what shopping looks
like with an AI enhanced self service check out. Just
imagine a life without barcodes and smart technology that helps
retailers attract and retain consumers. Today, we'll continue our journey
of discovery into Intel's innovative ideas for the future and
how they will impact something as steadfast as retail. But
(02:17):
before we go any further, let's welcome our guests. Joining
us today is Shoalie's Childry, the general manager of Consumer
Industries at Intel and an expert in the intersection of
technology and the retail, banking, hospitality, and quick serve restaurant industries.
His team at Intel is responsible for delivering innovative technological
(02:38):
solutions and tools and building an ecosystem of partners to
scale those solutions. Welcome to the show, Shalish.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Thank you, Graham. I'm super excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
Also joining us is a Kert Denghi, the co founder
and CEO of Radius AI, a pioneer in transforming retail
operations with advanced human centric AI solutions. Acold also founded
the Internet of Things Collaboratory at Arizona State University in
twenty seventeen.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
Welcome to you, too, Acold. Thank you Greg. It's a
pleasure to be part of the show.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
I think we'll start with a little bit of background
on how retail has changed during the Internet era. Shelley
shall begin with you. What kind of shift have we
seen over the past two decades when it comes to
people opting for online shopping over in person shopping in
breaking mortar stores?
Speaker 3 (03:34):
Thank you Graham.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Before starting about how Internet has changed retail, I like
to stab back at what I see as the core
retail experience. It's really a human experience. So from the
dawn of retail, there's something fundamental about retail that has
not changed, and that's about that experience. It's how we
(03:57):
feel after we have conducted the shopping, so the commerce
and the transaction that comes later. And as we have
progressed through all the developments, there have been new tools
and capabilities and technologies and those have shaped our expectations.
And that is exactly what has happened to Internet era as well.
(04:19):
So while we're happy shopping and tradition more Internet it
pvided a different technology which was pervasive in all aspects
of our life, and we carried those expectations in retail
as well. And for us it's just a different means
of shopping. And let's be honest, depending on our needs,
(04:40):
sometimes it's just way more convenient to shop online. And
it's not just about certain products that have better suit
it for online shopping. Same product at one moment, I'm
going to go buy in a physical restore, the other time,
I'm just going to go on internet. And as we've
all seen, retailers initially fail to see that. They saw
(05:02):
Internet just as a tool and technology that are separate.
They saw it as a competition as opposed to seeing
it as something that can enhance and augument retail experiences.
So initially a lot of us shifted to internet shopping
because that's where our needs are better met. But through
that twenty a decade, physical retailers started to see that's
(05:25):
not just a technology and they can just have a website,
and now they can compete with the online retailers. They
have integrated Internet into their physical operations. And now we've
also seen the retailers who started as pure prey online retailers,
they've started to open physical stores. So since then we
(05:45):
have reached what I call a steady state after initial
what I call the gloom and doom. I started in
retail industry in two thousand and eight, and I remember
everyone was predicting the death of physical retail, and even
then I had this conviction about this coat experience. And
then we started off at Intel. Our journey retail is
(06:06):
how we can bring all these great technologies and the
experience that are online, but deliver and working with retailers
and our technology partners that I could and others so
that the enhances and complements physical retail. And that's what's happening.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah, and we're going to talk a little bit about
the technology side of things and particularly the role of AI.
But I would like your thoughts about the last two
decades of how we've evolved, you know, from brix and
mortar stores to online and there I think there is
probably a shift back to the brick and mortar stores.
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I agree with Shilesh that we've seen exciting developments in retail.
Retail is one of the most complex human activities, and
I actually really enjoy being in retail because it's not
only human, it's also social. There is a complex web
of people who work together to create this experience. But
(07:04):
people missed, especially during the pandemic, they realized they missed
the social experience they missed going into a store interacting
with humans, and retailers also saw that the characteristics of
shopping in person may actually be more favorable for their
financial goals as well. People who shop in stores may
(07:27):
not return things as often as they do in detail,
and that is one of the biggest expenses in online shopping.
They may actually be more satisfied with their purchases because
they talked about it to store clerk and they interacted
with the other people in a store, So creating an experience,
(07:49):
a positive experience in the store has become more important
once again. Besides keeping the store efficient and profit fitable,
we see once again gaining speed the trend of making
customers want to go back every day.
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Now you've heard Akould mention some of the social impacts
of the COVID nineteen pandemic, but I want to dig
a little deeper on its implications for the retail industry.
It's no surprise that some small retailers in your community
didn't survive the pandemic. Some of those businesses simply couldn't
pivot from their in person to online retail fast enough
(08:31):
to save their shop, or they didn't have the resources
to make the change at all. But the businesses that
did survive were able to invest in technology that allowed
them to make online retail easy and accessible. These companies
came out on the other side of the pandemic not
just alive, but stronger. With this in mind, I asked Akut,
what have you seen from companies that are investing in
(08:52):
technology to help fortify their retail business.
Speaker 3 (08:58):
The pandemic changed human behavior, and we saw that impact
retailers differently and to rapidly adapt to behavioral change, you
need data and this is one of the ways that
technology help retailers. So if you have consistent, objective data
(09:18):
to guide your decisions, then you adapt faster, learning and
changing your processes and procedures, adapting to the market as
part of the system, as opposed to people saying now
we have to change. Change becomes part of your culture.
And as Charlie said, right now, the arrow is pointing
(09:41):
towards increasing the productivity of the people you have because
you cannot hire too many of them. Retailers that are
rapidly expanding right now, but one of the things they
don't want to drop is the customer experience. So you
want to automate things that are not visus to the
customer that is behind the desk, and you want to
(10:04):
allow the employee to personally interact with the customers so
that they get that in person experience so that they
want to come back.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
Yeah, I would like to talk a little bit more
about the technology specifically, what would the customers feel, what
would they experience that would be different, whether it be price,
better information, better stock availability. What are some of the
tangible things that a person like myself just walking into
a store would actually experience.
Speaker 2 (10:38):
So all of the questions you've post I think exactly
that's what the role of technology is. However, I see
the technology as something that will augment enhance existing experiences.
As an example, in all days, the only way I
would get introduced to products, new products was through stores
(11:00):
were the curators of the product. That is not true anymore.
We are introduced to new products through social media channels,
through all sorts of other technology. Then we go in
the stores. I'm not necessarily a lot of I'm looking
for that product in the store. I already know it.
I probably have done a lot of research as well,
so I'm not just relying on the associate to tell
(11:23):
me everything about too often because I'm only focused on
that one product. So I know a lot more than
an associate probably can because he or she has to
worry about thousands of fiscus in the store. So now
the focus is not so much about curating the products
more about meeting my needs there. So maybe when I
(11:43):
walk in the store, can you help me find the
product easily? Technology can help to make sure that they
have the right products in the store. Because now with
artificial intelligence supply chains will be way more efficient. Technology
like computer vision or RFID can help you to make
(12:03):
sure that you have products on the shelf. Technology can
also make sure that you are able to deliver more
personalized experience to shopper in all kinds of retail setting,
not just high end stores.
Speaker 3 (12:18):
So I want to point out that there are different
types of customers and for some customers this omnichannel experience
where they enhance their experience through online knowledge is very important,
and sometimes we become a different customer ourselves at different days.
For instance, sometimes I'm in a hurry. I'm there just
(12:38):
to find one thing, and I really want to know
where exactly it's in the store, and I want to
just start there get it come out. There are other
times when I want to be at my leisure, I
want to discover new things. And for the retailer also,
they want to inspire their customers and lead them to
(12:59):
spontaneous purchases. So you want to create an experience for
those people who have time in their heads. It becomes
a challenge, of course to provide these different types of
experience all at the same time in the same store.
So given this challenge, you need to customize technology to
(13:20):
the different needs. I want to point out some of
the technology that you actually want to be invisible. You
put it there, it makes life easier, but the employees
or the customers don't even need to think about it.
So taking such a technology and making it disappear is
(13:41):
one of the goals of technology companies, and a lot
goes in the background of making that possible. Artificial intelligence
at its best is one of the empowering technologies that
makes it possible, and one of the interesting things ABOUTNOLO.
There are different ways it can become visible. For instance,
(14:03):
there's a lag, so you're doing something and you're expecting
your response and it takes forever for it to actually happen.
Why does that happen? Of course, as a customer, I
don't care. I'm just waiting there and it's not responding.
But from a technological point of view, that tells us, well,
maybe there's a communication link right between the store and
(14:25):
the cloud and that's taking a long time to go
and come back. Well, maybe I need to put things
at the edge, meaning the store, right where the customer is,
and then you can take that data that's happening. Whatever
the customer said, or the object they put on the
counter and process it, respond to it there and create
(14:49):
that instant experience so that it disappears because the lag
is the one that alerts to them that there's something
going on there. So that leads us into edge AI,
which is one of the things that huge industry working
all together, has been able to put together recently. It's
(15:10):
right now becoming feasible at actual locations.
Speaker 1 (15:18):
Coming up next on Technically Speaking and Intel podcast.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Biggest advances in the last few years, and AI is
technology that learns by itself.
Speaker 1 (15:30):
We'll be right back after a brief message from our
partners at Intel. Welcome back to Technically Speaking an Intel podcast.
I'm here now with Shailish Chowdhry and Akuttinghi. Chalie, I
(15:52):
know that you have the team there at Intel working
on these sorts of smart retail solutions at any that
you can share with us, ones that you're quite excited about.
Speaker 2 (16:03):
Yes, we're actually working on a wide range of products
and like majority of them are AI. Every retailer today
is interested how they can use AI both to drive
or productivity but also to drive better experience for us
as shoppers. So I see two categories one is some
(16:24):
of the larger retailers, they are in the front edge
of innovation, so they are working on a lot of
what I call pilots and demonstration projects. One of the
examples at the checkout because checkout is one of the
most critical experiences. Also, we're working on the projects which
they call store automation, that has to do with better
(16:45):
visibility the inventory, also the improving receiving and the operations
the pack end. We're also engaged in the projects which
a lot of time gets referred to as last mile delivery,
which is a lot of times they're shopping online that
gets delivered through the physical retail and instead of opening
massive distribution centers, a lot of retailers already have stores
(17:09):
in all around neighborhoods and they're starting to use them
as their fulfillment centers, and they're upgrading a lot of
them to deliver similar experience that some of the larger
online retailers can within half an hour a you ordering
a product and showing up at your door. The third
area we're seeing a lot of interest is on personalization.
(17:30):
So it's just not about mass personalization, it's about individual personalization.
The one I'm really excited about. We cannot name who
that retailer is, but that has to do with search.
In spite of all the advances, Say, if I like
a shirt that you're wearing, grab I don't go buy it.
(17:50):
I have to go through like ten to fifteen searches
to be able to find the same shirt unless I
know exact brand and style. But with advances like Jenney AI,
I should be able to find exact same shirt with
literally one or two prompts. And that's going to be
a game changer on how we shop and where we shop,
(18:12):
but also how retailers are going to deliver the shopping
experience for us.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, so in that scenario, you might get your smartphone out,
take a photo of someone with that shirt, searches for
that vision to all the various local retail stores, and
then be able to deliver it, or you can go
pick it up and try it on and still have
that in person experience.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Absolutely in that scenario. The thing when I heard about it,
the word that came to my mind that each and
every one of us will be a walking model. Now,
the social media has made a lot of people influencers,
and that great, we are getting influence, but now everybody's
an influencer, everybody's a.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
Model, and I could what are your thoughts around using
computer vision, particularly more towards I guess the checkout experience.
Do you think we could do away with barcodes or
do you think there could be a time where we
could almost go in and walk out and charge our cards.
Speaker 3 (19:15):
Well, we're still experimenting as a technology and retailers together
as a team, and also customers as willing participants, are
giving us great feedback. On one end was the vision
of totally friction less checkout, right, so you walk in,
you walk out, and automatically you get charged for whatever
(19:39):
you bought. And we found that people did not respond
very positively to the totally friction less experience. What we
perceived as friction, like that hello from the employee was
not friction. That was actually a positive thing. Don't discard that. Yes,
and you might need help, and who's are to help?
(20:00):
There needs to be somebody to help. So there was
some adjustment there in terms of perception. What do customers
actually want? So you don't want to turn your brick
and mortar store into a glorified vending machine. So on
the other hand, people do not enjoy scanning items either,
so there needs to be some sort of middle ground,
(20:21):
and I think that's the hybrid experience now that is
gaining traction, where we mold the technology into the natural
flow of the store and make each of those steps frictionless.
So picking up the item is frictionless, you actually have
(20:42):
real time inventory, much faster inventory check, and it's accurate.
It starts there and then it goes towards putting your
items and you don't have to scan them. Computer vision
is used to recognize the items immediately, even if you
put twenty of it takes the same amount of time.
You just put it there, and then it may even
(21:04):
actually say hey, that's an age verified item, automatically alerts
the clerk. You don't have to call anybody, and then
they're already there.
Speaker 1 (21:15):
What ACRED is describing this hybrid frictionalist experience that still
provides for human touch when necessary might be the future
of grocery shopping. And I think we can all agree
that an experience like this one will make running errands
or picking up milk and bread on the way home
from work simpler for all of us. But what about
the business owner's tasks? With implementing this frictionless experience. If
(21:39):
we take employees largely out of the equation, do we
also lose some of the oversight that keeps people from
forgetting to scan their items? Does this technology make it
easier for customers to steal from the store? Retail stores
lost and estimated eighty seven billion to theft in the
United States in twenty twenty two, and this could reach
one hundred and fifteen billion by twenty twenty five. So
(22:01):
I asked Shelish about the challenges businesses my face as
they adopt this frictionless experience when it comes to product
loss and product theft.
Speaker 2 (22:13):
Very interesting topic and we've been seeing this debate as well.
And Graham, the product loss that a lot of time
gets referred to as shrink has always been part of industry,
So it includes not just the product loss due to theft,
but also a product that gets lost during shipping, during receiving,
(22:35):
so that a lot of different ways that product loss
can happen. Now when it comes to theft, there are
multiple elements there as well. So one is organized crime
and one is just consumer trying to sometimes mislabeled products.
Other times it's just not even scanning products. What does
computervision allows us to do is accurately see a product.
(22:59):
Now you can what product is. You're not just relying
on the barcode that somebody may have switched. So it's
actually in that instance will help you reduce the product loss.
If somebody doesn't scan a product, there's an alert that
gets sent to store associate. So what we are seeing
is in the back of the store. A lot of
loss happens there as well, and you'll be surprised how
(23:21):
in a creator receiving is a part of it, and
computervision technology can help drive the accuracy in the receiving
and further reducing the product class. So these are some
of the early reserves that we have seen in the
pilot and these are all read examples.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
Yeah, because I was thinking of that trade off between
what you call the customer experience and this computer vision,
because I went to a new self checkout and I
think it detected my hand going over the scanner but
without a product, and it thinks that I didn't scan
it properly, and it kind of alerted the shop as
(23:58):
system next to me. So I guess, as you say,
it is a journey but the positive thing is that
there was a person there. It wasn't like the alarms
and everything and the security guards coming down bearing down
my neme. So is there any day that you've seen
and some of the trends around product loss and product theft,
(24:19):
particularly around that sort of self checkout area.
Speaker 3 (24:23):
Yes, we hear from our customers that it is a
top concern of theirs loss in general and not just theft,
as Shylish very aptly described. But one of their biggest
problems is food waste, and it is part of their
business model. It can be improved massively by AI models,
(24:45):
but also alerting the store employees, Hey, that item there
has been sitting there for more than three hours. You
need to remove that so that the quality is preserved,
basically balancing waste and quality at the same time, but
also ringing up the right item. Not everything has a
(25:05):
barcode in a store. So you pick up a hot dog. There'sn't,
thank god, a barcode on the hot dog. So you
picked it up, maybe you put some condiments, maybe that's
price separately, right, ringing that up right now requires the
employee to ask you, what do you have there? Right,
so that already extends the process and the accuracy of
(25:28):
the reporting and so on. I mean, we need to
really for the environment too, we need to lower food waste.
So if you do accurate checkout and you know exactly
what was picked up and you ring it up, then
you improve on waste. So the important thing there is
doing the right thing at the right time, and that
(25:50):
helps your inventory controls, that helps your customer experience, that
helps your shrink.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
And Shelly, I just wanted to get a like a
final thought from yourself if you were in the retail
industry and you're a manager there, what's the top issue
or consideration they should be thinking about if they want
to implement this sort of technology that we've been talking
(26:18):
about today. What are some of the challenges that they
need to be on the lookout for. What are some
of the intelligent questions they can ask their vendors to
make sure that they're getting the best value from their
time and money.
Speaker 2 (26:34):
Now, that's a great question at a question that comes
up a lot. So I think everybody sees the potential
of what not just computer vision, but AI in general,
will bringing The challenge they're facing is threefour One is
the cost. So in this first stage. Majority of them,
(26:58):
especially with computer vision, are using specialize ecceletors for AI
that are very expensive. The second challenge that comes up
is availability of an ecosystem of technology providers. So while
large detaders have the resources both financial resources but also
(27:19):
the engineers and data scientists to go work on the
concepts that they can try understand the ROI, but majority
of the retailers do not have those resources and they
really need an ecosystem for partners. The third one is
the ROI the time to really get returns on their investment.
(27:39):
Those are the three questions. The good news is I
think they're starting to change and one of the technologies
that I'm excited about that will help with the cost
as well as with the ecosystem is AIPC concept. The
reason I'm excited about this because this is a technology
(28:00):
there's an extension of existing PC technologies and it is
not any specialized hardware. This already runs all of the
applications because in retail store, most of whether you're talking
about point of sale CHAOS or other instare devices. They're
all embedded PCs, so that will significantly reduce the cost
and att as first challenge, but that's also the technology
(28:23):
that a lot of technology products are very familiar with.
Now they have to augment what they're doing rather than reinvite.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
Our regular listeners to Technically speaking, might recognize that term CHAI.
Let's just referred to the AIPC, which we covered in
episode three of this season. Aipcs I think represent the
future of computing. They'll incorporate cutting edge AI tech faster
and more effectively than anything we've seen before, and in
relation to today's conversation, they'll play a key role in
(28:54):
a faster, more efficient world of retail. And these aipcs
are relyingt on the Intel Core Ultrapersonessa Wish debuted last
year in twenty twenty three and offers the best AIPC
experience to mobile platforms and right out to the edge,
and it will power more than two hundred and thirty
models of the world's first aipcs. But given how much
of a game changer this Intel tech represents for the
(29:16):
retail industry, I want you to know some of the
challenges business owners would consider when attempting to adopt this.
He's acred with the.
Speaker 3 (29:25):
Answer, So focus on the total cost and that will
lead you to Okay, this software vendor works only on
this hardware that is very expensive and custom and is
not available. That's not going to scale out in two
three years. So that's a very important part. And part
(29:48):
of that problem of scaling is adaptability. So a lot
of AI solutions they pilot very well, but then they
stumble on expanding two thousand locations. So pay attention to
whether the technology you're selecting has scaled out, has the
adaptive features that is prerequisite, and then how expensive is
(30:11):
it to this machine? Right? So let's say you have
a computer vision technology that recognizes products, but as a retailer,
you have new products coming in and their faces changes
all the time and so on, and why are you
going to have to have someone in the back constantly
scanning items and teaching the device so that it remains
(30:33):
accurate or does the technology automatically get to learn. So
that's the biggest advances in the last few years in
AI is technology that learns by itself and knows what
it doesn't look. So basically you need to evaluate the
technology what it tries to do, with all its failure
(30:54):
mechanisms and all the edge cases right, and select the
technology that adapts to the environment and during the pandemic,
we also learned things can change in a hurry, and
will your technology adapt with you with the circumstances. Can
it actually work outside of the very narrow path that
(31:18):
it was done for so that it continues being useful
over the lifetime of a product. Retailers have long lifetime
expectations for their technology. The technology has to last five
ten years. Both the hardware and the software needs to
be resilient work in a store environment, not be overly
(31:41):
fickle and robust. So that's very important to evaluate before
you actually choose the technology.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Okay, I think I've learned a lot, and hopefully all
listeners have as well. I could and Shaley, thanks very
much for your time.
Speaker 3 (31:54):
Thank you Graham, Thank you Graham.
Speaker 1 (31:57):
Thank you to Shalley's childry A Denghi for their expertise
in today's episode of Technically Speaking. The advent of trading
between each other has been the cornerstone of our civilization
and I think one of the main reasons for our
advancement as a human race. Retail will continue to be
a social experience, and any technology that can help bring
(32:19):
people together and harmoniously trade with one another will continue
to drive our society positively into the future. The advancement
in AI and in particular computer vision will help all
businesses large and small, be able to serve their customers
better by making retail interactions more meaningful for the owners,
(32:39):
it will allow them to serve their customers at a
higher standard, even if they are challenges with staff shortfalls.
For those with retail stores, the implementation of AI can
seem daunting, but you can always try to experiment with
the technology discussed in today's episode at a small scale.
This is so you can continue to build confidence and
(32:59):
continue need to learn. Remember you are the expert in
your field. AI is there to lift you to the
next level. In our next episode, we will look at
how AI is helping improve manufacturing holiday So join us
on June eighteenth or the next edition of Technically Speaking
and Intel podcast. Technically Speaking was produced by Ruby Studio
(33:25):
from iHeartRadio in partnership with Intel and hosted by me
Graham Class. Our executive producer is Molly Sosher, our EP
of Post Production is James Foster, and our supervising producer
is Nikia Swinton. This episode was edited by Sierra Spreen
and written by nick Firschel,
Host
Graeme Klass
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