Heading into 2023, retailers are facing an era-defining opportunity to reimagine the future of shopping experience built upon the new trajectory of evolving technology and changing consumer trends.
In the past year, companies focused on operational agility more than ever before and took a lead in strategically designing a sustainable hybrid work model. Brands placed people at the center, technology at speed and innovation at scale. To prepare for the unexpected and adapt to what 2023 holds, future-ready organizations will make wise technology investments that secure future growth. According to industry giants across sectors, this year will see AI adoption skyrocket by the rapid diffusion of models into all kinds of applications. Blockchain, AR/VR, Web3, and Metaverse technologies are set to take center stage as well.
According to Kaushik Das, the global senior director (operations and analytics) at Giant Eagle, retail business will enter a hyperdrive with the help of breakthrough technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and AR/VR. In his words, “Retail is about to see an expected yet unprecedented uptrend, with tech innovation playing a pivotal and directional role in 2023 – more than ever before. We will see more purpose driven AI in action that not only augments business & operational decision making, but also focuses on unlocking opportunities across newer intersections of markets and guest segments together.”
Meanwhile, Vaidyanathan Seshan, SVP (International Technology) and Head of India Technology Hub, lululemon, expressed a similar take regarding emerging technologies and their impact on people as well as on our planet. He opined “Aligned with our brand purpose of care for individuals, our communities, and the planet, technology has a multi-dimensional approach to enabling and living the lululemon vision. The advancements in applied data, scalable infrastructure, and underlying security innovations will power all business processes from merchandising, product development, hyper-relevant marketing, supply chain, retail operations, and guest experience.”
The objective, in the grand sense of things, according to Lowe’s India’s Sr. VP (Technology) and Managing Director Ankur Mittal, is to accelerate innovation. “We will see more innovation in spatial commerce that leverages the power of AR/VR, 3D visualization, space measurement etc. as we know, the future of retail is immersive and interactive. This will bring brands much closer to the customer right from the idea/inspiration stage through purchase, to implementation”.
In the same vein KS Viswanathan, the VP of industry initiatives, NASSCOM, said: “This year, GCCs will become a key enabler of enterprise convergence and a mainstream platform for exponential technologies such as AI/ML, blockchain, IoT, digital, cloud, data analytics etc. Such capabilities are hard to build organically, for reasons ranging from scarcity of quality, experienced talent at scale, to the absence of organizational DNA to effectively on-board and benefit from such capabilities.”
With AR/VR technologies finally entering the mainstream and enjoying implementations across a variety of industries and professions, Vineet Mehta, GM – Business Services & Platforms & Bangalore Site Leader at Anko GCC India holds the opinion that retailer of the future will earn an edge over their competition by being future forward and adopting emerging and disruptive technologies to connect with the customers.“In a post Covid-19 world where labour costs are on the rise, we will continue to see further innovation to enable cashless, contactless, and autonomous shopping and delivery. AI and Robotics will play bigger roles in building an agile and resilient retail supply chain to tackle increasing supply chain costs and risks. Retail innovation is undoubtedly the key to stay relevant and competitive in the business.”
Interestingly, brands and retailers weren’t the only ones forced to accelerate their digital transformation. Customers too, have had their own journey which altered the course for in-demand shopping expectations, preferences, and behaviours. With the lines between digital and physical being blurred in recent times, customers will continue to dictate when, where and how they want to be serviced.
Walmart Global Tech India’s SVP (Retail Tech Platforms) and Country Head Hari Vasudev said, “In the coming years, the new age technologies will help brands understand customer preferences more deeply which will make the entire shopping experience more inclusive, immersive and personalized across digital channels.”
The focal point, as defined by Shreyans Dugar, Vice President – Technology Transformation & Strategy, Hudson Bay Company, is to deliver a seamless and customised experience to the customers be it online or offline. “This will be delivered by leveraging a strong data foundation that will help organizations personalize offers and promotions, assortment or product recommendations in a highly automated manner. Using data sciences and machine learning, multi-channel retailers will focus on understanding customer psyche and buying patterns, and deliver a personalized experience at scale. As a result, data engineering, visualization and machine learning will drive innovation for retailers in 2023. Additionally, leveraging data for fraud prevention & detection will be critical as more and more customers shop online. Retailers will be challenged to deliver a safe and frictionless experience to its customers by using advanced data science techniques.”
An alternative use case of current and future AI capabilities was highlighted by Vikram Ahuja, the co-founder of Talent500, in his own words, “2023 is the year that AI will transform recruitment. Recruiting teams today spend 45%-55% of their time screening profiles and trying to shortlist the best-fit applications. By using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques, AI will make this process more efficient, as it can scan thousands of resumes in seconds and deliver those that match the job description.”
Fascinatingly, even in the face of global headwinds, retailers are not unnecessarily perturbed in their quest for technology adoption and upgradation. Far from that, they find the impending recession a huge opportunity to help change the direction of the retail course forever with a paradigm facelift. In regard to the future of retail commerce, Madhu Natesan, VP of Business Operations at Saks was noted saying, “Retail has become more Omni channel than ever before with a higher gravity towards digital growth. Digital retail will experience a rapid acceleration in technology innovations powered by AI to alleviate key friction points for both the customer and the retailer.”
For the retail industry, presenting customers with newer and richer buying experiences will remain a key point going into the future. This idea was resonated by the SVP (technology) at Victoria’s Secret & Co. Vasudharini Srinivasan. “The focus would be on the bottom-line optimization aided by innovations with a demand for an efficient, ultra-hyper OmniVerse (B&M, traditional digital and Metaverse) experience.” she explained.
Insurance sector is also not behind. Some of the top technology and innovation themes being pursued within the sector are rapid progress on automation to standardize or streamline global processes; strengthening data foundation to accelerate analytics/AI adoption; cloud adoption as well as enhancing the architecture to guide business transformation and making organizations agile in the ever-evolving technology landscape, said Amit Kalra, Managing Director & Head Global Business Solution Centres India, Swiss Re.
A subject matter expert in the insurance economy, Sarish Paul, a director at Allstate India believes hyper-personalisation is the need of the hour. “With rising inflation in the US and changing macroeconomic conditions globally, insurance companies have been watchful in this space with focus on improving the combined ratios and overall profitability. Most insurance companies today are going through or need to go through the digital transformation journey to enhance the digital experience of customers and prospects. It is no longer about the needs of a customer segment; it is about the needs of an individual customer. Hyper-personalization is the need of the hour and therefore the offerings must be customized using the right insights through data and analytics,” he explained.
Not just that, the banking sector too is at the crossroads of digital transformation and the challenges of a volatile economic environment. The year 2023 may see banks turn into technology companies that offer cutting edge digital solutions to enhance the customer experience and trust.
The incorporation of Conversational AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants have been gaining immense traction in the year gone by, and 2023 will witness significant innovations in this area. Intelligent chatbots know when to hand over the chat to a human and achieving this balance between chatbots and human resources will prove key in improving customer experience.
“For this transformation to be successful, organisations need to look at not just digitizing the front-end systems but it’s equally important to get the necessary muscle (back-end processes) to be digitized as well, so that it’s synchronized and can provide for strategic agility in a fast-changing environment,” said Murali Achuta, Head of Finance SVB India.
An often-overlooked segment of the world economy and a vital component of digital systems is the semiconductor industry. The industry has recently become a sensitive issue in geopolitics due to the ongoing tensions between the United States and China.
To comment on the future of this critical domain the Group Director and R&D Head of Synopsys India, Shivananda Koteshwar expressed his thoughts as “It was necessary, as we experienced how complex semiconductors have become, with engineers striving to meet the progressively challenging task of optimizing power, performance, and area (PPA) in chips with as many as trillions of transistors. In addition to systemic and scale complexity, a variety of other challenges were laid bare, from cyclical swings in product demand to a shrinking pool of engineering talent to the growing impact of all this energy consumption on our planet.”
