As we look towards the future, we can already see how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to change the way we live and interact together as humans. What many of us don’t consider is the amount of AI that is used in the background every time we make an online purchase.

Challenged with increasing competition and erratic omnichannel customer behaviors, bank, travel and retail players have truly started to embrace AI.

As Stephane Paraiso, Managing Director of Azur Digital explains: “From the personalization of the customer journey, through to the seamless provision of inventory from warehouse to door, AI-driven retail strategies are effectively and profitably meeting customer expectation and needs.”

Indeed, an IB study has also found that 91% of retail executives believe cognitive computing will play a disruptive role within the industry in the foreseeable future, with 83% believing that AI will have a critical impact on the future of their businesses.
How AI can leapfrog Customer Engagement

Global brands have already turned to AI and are successfully boosting their customer engagement rates, optimizing and orchestrating over billions of interactions per month across their marketing channels to determine which patterns lead to engagement and ultimately qualified traffic.

L’Occitane, Manor and Thomas Cook used Tinyclues, a solution that relies on Deep Artificial Intelligence to identify future buyers for any promoted item, even without recent intent. Tinyclues helps the generation of incremental omnichannel revenue (up to 60% sales increase per email), through intelligent campaign targeting and planning.

How AI helps optimise omnichannel conversion rates

Customer shopping behaviors in a physical store can be understood through visual observations and salespersons feedback, which is harder to achieve online and when visitors are essentially hidden behind a screen. Behind Google Analytics data lies a plethora of customer behaviors and paths that must be understood in order to make the right optimization choices. 

In the MENA region, the use of AI could be even more beneficial as customer behaviors are even more difficult to interpret considering the large expat community and diverse cultures.

Instead, brands with high online and mobile traffic volume can now quickly adopt real-time UX optimization based on behavioral and usage data.

Virgin Megastore ME used ContentSquare, an AI-based UX analytics solution to analyze in-depth how users engaged with their ecommerce website. Contentsquare’s analysis covered all aspects of the customer experience, from navigation and merchandising through to product page content scanning and checkout. This has provided Virgin Megastore's ecommerce team with actionable insights and recommendations in order to optimize customer journeys and uplift conversion rates and average baskets.

Getting your business ready for AI

The three main components to successfully embed AI into your business are technology, quality of your data and team readiness.

The rise of cloud-based solutions has democratized access to AI functionalities that can dramatically improve omnichannel customer engagement, at a much lower cost. Reaping the full benefits of such solutions however requires dedicating a sufficient level of dedicated and skilled data operators, capable of taking the appropriate actions based on the provided insights.

There is no doubt that when AI technologies are strategically chosen for their capabilities and then correctly implemented from an architectural, organizational and operational perspective, AI can help businesses leapfrog their omnichannel value proposition.

These are challenging, yet exciting times ahead!

Azur Digital, the omnichannel consultancy in Dubai, will be present at Seamless 2018 (14-15 April) and discussing further the implementation of AI into transactional businesses. Meet Azur Digital and their AI partners to discuss specifics about your business and how you can leapfrog your omnichannel sales.

About Azur Digital
Azur Digital is the pioneer management consulting firm specializing in omnichannel commerce in the Middle East.
By providing strategy, expertise and project management services across all key facets of digital commerce and marketing, Azur Digital helps brands implement their ecommerce, loyalty programme and customer marketing projects in full confidence.
Azur Digital’s team offers unrivalled on-the-ground support, regional market knowledge and extensive experience. They have enabled UAE market leaders like Carrefour and Virgin Megastore to execute in record time their omnichannel transformation.
Azur Digital partners with cutting-edge MarTech providers such as Tinyclues, Arvato Bertelsmann and ContentSquare to boost sales through agile marketing services.

For more information, please visit http://azurdigital.com

© Press Release 2018