The possibilities with Artificial Intelligence (AI) for e-commerce are endless. With AI, for example, you can realize a personalized offer, suggestions based on image recognition and 24/7 customer service with a chatbot. High time for an interview with Guus van de Mond, founder of Squadra and, together with Leon Gerritsen, expert of our latest e-learning Introduction to AI for e-commerce.
Artificial Intelligence is a frequently heard term. But isn’t it still the far-from-my-bed show for many companies?
“I don’t think so. Developments in this area are going incredibly fast. AI is actually a new technology from the fourth industrial revolution. It may have started with the big companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, but it is rapidly becoming available to everyone. And now we are now in the phase where AI takes over tasks from people that until recently were not possible with automation. This also enables smaller organizations to work more efficiently, improve their productivity and increase turnover.
In fact, almost all of us already have to deal with AI on a daily basis, but we often do not realize this. Think of every time you watch a movie or buy a product via a personal recommendation or when you receive a package, the day after you ordered it. In all these cases, AI and an algorithm are used. ”
Can you say in your own words what AI means to you?
“AI is actually a collection of techniques. I notice that there is sometimes some confusion because of all the terms that are used interchangeably. AI involves techniques to perform targeted tasks that, until recently, could be done by humans. Thanks to the algorithms, AI is better able to do this than humans, especially in certain areas.
To make this possible, you must have access to a lot of data. That is why data science is also seen as the founder of smart techniques such as AI and machine learning. ”
Which techniques in the field of AI can you distinguish in e-commerce?
“Within e-commerce there are various ways in which you can apply AI. We roughly distinguish four techniques:
- Cognitive application. This has everything to do with recognizing and dealing with video, audio and texts. How do you easily extract information from photos and texts.
- Predictive modeling. This technique predicts what is likely to happen. For example, a recommendation based on previous purchasing behavior, which you often encounter on web shops such as Amazon and bol.com. Expected sales figures are also an example of predictive modeling.
- This automatically divides your data into categories and classes. Suppose you have 10,000 products in your webshop. Classification allows you to categorize them quickly and cheaply.
- This technique will let you find the best and fastest solution. How many sandwiches should I have on the shelf and have them packed to get through the day and not have too many left over at the end of the day? ”
Many companies want to be able to make a personal offer to their customers. How do you go about this?
“First of all, it is important that you need a fair amount of data for this. Not only keep track of sales data, but also what is searched for and clicked on, for example on the website and in e-mails. This allows you to build a personal profile of your customer. Once you have collected this data, you let go of algorithms to draw up a personal offer. Various tools are available in the market for this. ”
What tip do you have for webshops to start applying AI today?
“First, look at the different phases in the customer journey. As an organization, where is my most added value and can I benefit from AI. If you spend a lot of time on customer care, think of using chatbots, for example. Or is your delivery the bottleneck; check out how you can optimize your warehouse.
What you can quickly take steps now is having AI generate automatic, unique product texts for your webshop. Not only does this make your consumer happy, it also puts you higher in the search results, which gives you more traffic to your site and a higher conversion. They are already applying this with great success at Action and BCC. ”
Why should ecommerce professionals definitely take the Introduction to AI for Ecommerce e-learning?
“The world is moving so fast. You quickly fall behind if you don’t know anything about it. The e-learning is accessible, not too technical and therefore easy to follow for everyone. Even if you have already taken your first steps in AI, thanks to the many examples it is in my opinion a must to follow this e-learning so that you are aware of the latest developments. ”
Do you want to follow the e-learning? Then click on this link below. Note: the e-learning is in Dutch.
https://bit.ly/2YhodGA