NLX, the AI platform powering advanced conversational experiences for the world’s most admired brands, today announced the results of a commissioned survey of U.S. retail executives conducted by QuestionPro, an independent online research, insights, and experience company.
With the holiday shopping season just around the corner, NLX wanted to hear from retail executives about the expected effect of generative AI on their business and their plans for deploying generative AI applications for their customers and employees.
The results were surprising, with 92% saying they will have customer-facing generative AI live for the holiday shopping season. Just 6% said they would not, and 2% didn’t know.
Sales and Customer Satisfaction Impact
Ninety-five percent of respondents said that generative AI would significantly or moderately impact sales and customer satisfaction. Just 4% said it would have a minimal impact on sales, and 1% guessed no impact. Five percent said it would have a minimal impact on customer satisfaction, and zero said no impact.
“We were surprised at the numbers around the percentage of retailers planning to have customer-facing generative AI live for the holidays, as well as the expected impact on the shopping season,” said Andrei Papancea, co-founder and CEO of NLX. “From our seat, there is a lot of enthusiasm for these applications but not widespread implementation. That said, we believe the retailers that successfully deploy generative AI to delight shoppers will have a significant advantage.”
AI Implementation Challenges
Cost, business risk, change management, and unclear ROI were relatively evenly distributed as the biggest challenges in implementing generative applications.
Anticipated AI Applications
Among consumer-facing applications, conversation-based product recommendations were the most commonly cited AI feature being considered, with AI-generated emails and texts coming in second, customer service automation third, and virtual try-on experiences last. For employee-facing applications, 59% of retail executives said they would use AI to automate business processes like buying and merchandising.
Consumer Expectations
Retail executives also perceive consumers as having high expectations for generative AI applications. Ninety-two percent said that some shoppers expect retailers to include generative AI in their shopping experience.
“Retailers’ perception that customers expect generative AI in their shopping experiences also surprised us,” continued Papancea. “It’s true that consumer use of generative AI has far outpaced brands’ deploying consumer-facing applications, but given that so few retailers are offering them, we don’t see it as an expectation today. When generative AI applications are more widely used by retailers, they will certainly drive customer choice and brand preference.”
Methodology
This survey was conducted by QuestionPro in early October 2024. It includes 100 responses from U.S.-based retailers across 29 states at the VP level or above. Eighty-two percent were C-level, owner, partner, or president. Ninety-two percent work at companies with 500 or more employees.
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