Artificial Intelligence

Walmart is launching a new initiative with InComm and Pursuant Health that allows health plans to promote health risk assessments at kiosks in Walmart stores.

InComm, a leading prepaid product and transaction services company, and Pursuant Health (formerly SoloHealth) announced the partnership at the 2015 Money 2020 Conference in Las Vegas.

Two leading retailers highlighted different aspects of their digital customer experience efforts at the recent SAP Retail Forum in Miami.

Keri Stelle, director, Target Technology Services, said Target Corp. is trying to modify its entire corporate culture to respond to changing needs of the new digital customer in a session titled, “Who is the Evolving Target Guest?”

“It’s not just about Mom anymore,” said Stelle. “Today, the entire family wields influence over the retail purchase.”

Companies that are partially or entirely devoted to retailing dominate a new list of top brands among U.S. consumers.

According to a new study from Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Apple is the top brand with U.S. consumers. Following are Amazon and Walmart. Other retailers in the top 10 list include Netflix, Costco and Chick-Fil-A.

But the survey also showed that Walmart and Apple rank first and third among America's least favorite brands, indicating that "brand love" can be volatile and turn quickly negative.

Mall owner Westfield Corporation has created a new big data and analytics unit and made a key hire to oversee the important function.

Westfield named Raghav Lal as its new chief data and analytics officer to lead a newly established big data and analytics group that will be responsible for conceptualizing, developing and deploying the company’s data strategy. The move is a significant hiring investment to centralize the company’s wealth of data effectively, efficiently and safely for its customers and retailers alike, Westfield said in a statement.

One of the nation’s largest mall operators is updating its parking lot lighting with a tech-savvy solution.

Target Corp. is making a number of aggressive moves to become more self-reliant when it comes to IT development.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the latest move is the adoption of the DevOps software development strategy. DevOps emphasizes increased cooperation among software engineers and product deployment employees, and also focuses on agile development and testing methods.

Online fraudsters apparently do not keep nine-to-five hours.

According to a new study from fraud detection technology provider Sift Science, “The United States of Fraud,” online transactions conducted at 3 a.m. are most likely to be fraudulent.

The high likelihood of fraud at 3 a.m. occurs across all time zones. Also, fraudsters are more likely to transact during the weekdays.

Retailers who still think virtual reality is just for hard-core gamers should think again.

In another example of how physical retailers are employing state-of-the-art technology to remain engaging — and relevant — in a digital age, specialty apparel powerhouse Tommy Hilfiger on Tuesday became the first major retailer to employ virtual reality in its stores. The technology offers shoppers who otherwise might never attend a runway show a chance to view close-up and personal the fall runway show of the Hilfiger Collection.

Target on Monday officially opened the application process for its new startup accelerator program, created in partnership with Techstars and led by Target EIR (entrepreneur-in-residence) West Stringfellow. The retailer posted a Q&A with Stringfellow, who forged Target’s partnership with Techstars, on its Bullseye blog.

Here are highlights:

Target Corp. has made grocery and perishable products a big part of its turnaround strategy, and is committing to do so for the forseeable future.

Target is partnering with the MIT Media Lab and global design firm Ideo on a multi-year collaboration, known as the Food + Future coLAB, to explore the future of food. The work will focus on areas such as urban farming, food transparency and authenticity, supply chain and health.