Artificial Intelligence

In what could be a prelude to a retail strategy, Google is doing up a pop-up in the Big Apple.     The temporary outpost, called "Made by Google,” will open in downtown Manhattan, at 96 Spring Street, on Oct. 20, according to a notice on the search giant's website. It’s the same day that Google’s new smartphones, the Pixel and Pixel XL, go on sale nationwide.    

Hands down, “digital disruption” was the theme of the third annual Northwest Arkansas Technology Summit, held in Rogers, Arkansas. In line with evolving concept itself, there were many definitions of what digital disruption truly means heard throughout the event.  

Target Corp. is planning to test an agricultural process that involves growing plants indoors in precisely programmed conditions.   The discounter plans to test vertical farms within select U.S. stores, according Business Insider. The idea grew out of the Food + Future CoLab, a collaboration between Target, Ideo and the MIT Media Lab.  

AT&T is pulling out all the stops in San Francisco, opening its largest, most elaborate and most tech-centered store to date.   The new, two-level 24,000-sq.-ft. flagship is housed in an historic building located next to the busy and popular cable car turnaround on Powell Street. Constructed in 1908, the building has been restored from floor to ceiling back to its original Baroque architectural design.    

Walmart has gone into high gear in its fight to challenge Amazon.   The chain is on track to double the number of warehouses dedicated to online sales to 10 by the end of 2016, according to a report on nbcnews.com.    

IoT promises to deliver coveted seamless shopping experience, enterprise-wide visibility

To remain relevant in an omnichannel retailing world, brands must evolve operations to satisfy the way people shop. Armed with the Internet of Things (IoT), retailers position themselves to leverage the necessary operations to engage digitally savvy customers in an ever-changing business landscape.

IoT is making it easier for retailers to interact with consumers via connected home-based devices that allow consumers to interact with brands without launching a website or mobile app.

The best known is Amazon Echo, a voice activated device designed with an artificial intelligence assistant app called Alexa. Dedicated sensors in the device connect the consumer’s home to their retailers of choice, allowing, via voice commands, consumers to add items to virtual shopping lists or make online purchases.

Do we come to bury Jeff Bezos, or to praise him?

When I was a boy, my Cioci Mary (cioci is Polish for aunt) would occasionally treat me to a trip downtown in the small city where I grew up. We’d get a burger at Pappas’ diner and then head to W.T. Grant’s and she’d buy me candy, a comic book and a small toy. I mist up a little just thinking about it now, more than 50 years later.

You think a child of today, decades hence, will recall his aunt buying him a pair of sneakers on her laptop as fondly?