Artificial Intelligence

Organizations are throwing away billions of dollars annually on customer loyalty programs that just don’t work like they used to.   This was revealed in the Accenture report, “Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion: It’s Time You Invest More Wisely.” The study gauges the experiences and attitudes of 25,426 consumers around the world about their current loyalty relationship with brands and organizations.  

Driving conversion in a digital landscape requires a new level of engagement.   Pacific Sunwear of California has found a way to reconnect with its digital shoppers, as well as improve its click performance, drive conversion, and thus, sales. Using Rakuten Marketing Search, a solution available through Kenshoo’s advertising platform, the retailer is refining its strategic marketing approach, focusing on consumer engagement (click performance) and automating its ad spend management processes.  

Remember the memory-erasing Neuralyzer in "Men in Black"? Or more recently, "Ex Machina," the Oscar-winning story of a humanoid robot that uses emotional persuasion to outsmart humans and escape from the secluded home of its creator?  

It seems information security programs are not keeping up with the pace of evolving cyber-threats.   As more companies support Internet of Things (IoT) and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) programs, they become bigger targets to savvy cyber-criminals. This threat grows more serious when 66% of IT security professionals aren't sure how many devices are even in their environment.  

Consumers in recent years have shown a seemingly insatiable appetite for special offers and discounts. During the holiday season, retailers generated billions of dollars by rolling-out high-profile promotional strategies – but was this activity actually profitable?   For many retailers, the holiday season lead to significant profit erosion. According to DynamicAction’s Retail Index, 44% of all orders last year were sold on promotion. At the same time, however, retailers saw a 24% reduction in margins.   

A group of engineers from Oregon State University think it has a solution to solve the home delivery puzzle.  

As malware attacks drop, it is becoming clear that cyber-criminals’ weapons of choice are shifting — and retailers need to be ready.   That’s “2017 SonicWall Annual Threat Report,” which is compiled from data collected throughout 2016 by the SonicWall Global Response Intelligence Defense (GRID) Threat Network. This includes daily feeds from more than 1 million security sensors in nearly 200 countries and territories.  

The mobile payments landscape just lost one competitor — for now.   Google announced that it was ending its “Hands Free” payments pilot as of Wednesday, Feb. 8. The program, which launched in the San Francisco Bay Area in March 2016, enabled users to pay for goods and services without having to take out their phone, VentureBeat said.