Artificial Intelligence

We live in interesting times when it comes to all the ways we can pay and complete purchases, times when you can now order food for delivery without ever leaving your search engine. More convenient and secure ways of making payments are advancing on a number of interesting fronts, including computer chip enabled EMV credit and debit cards that are soon to replace magnetic stripe cards in the United States, and mobile phone-based digital wallets like Apple Pay and CurrentC (not to mention the digital currency bitcoin, which admittedly we’re pulling for).

Armonk, N.Y. – IBM has released new industry-specific solutions with pre-built predictive analytics capabilities for industries including retail, to uncover and act on critical business insights. IBM is working with retail signature design partners including Urban Outfitters.

New York -- The Kate Spade New York brand has entered into a partnership with True Fit, a fit personalization service, to provide personalized fit and size recommendations for the brand’s apparel and footwear on Katespade.com.

The site will also feature True Fit’s new shoe user experience that delivers accurate fit ratings and size recommendations to consumers while also communicating the nuance of each shoe style.

Boston – The stereotype of the beleaguered customer service representative who can’t keep up may have some truth to it. A recent study from Glance Networks, a provider of visual engagement, found that 73% of customer service professionals have difficulty meeting their performance metric goals.

Dublin, Ohio – The Wendy’s Company is the latest retail chain to open a dedicated technology center. Wendy’s has launched 90 Degrees Labs near the campus of The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio.

I’ve been attending the annual CIO Symposium hosted by the MIT Sloan School of Management for several years now, and always walk away with a fresh batch of thoughts from top business, IT and academic minds. Here are three of the most valuable insights I learned at the recent 2015 edition of the conference.

Know Your Customer – Now

A new wave of consumers is quickly becoming the most powerful economic force in retail, and it is causing retailers to refine plans on how to meet the needs of this new generation.

While some retailers may see Millennials as a unique group that forces massive change, GameStop sees them as well-informed, independent consumers who are causing us to rise to an even higher level of service.

Framingham, Mass. – Staples Inc. sees Amazon.com as its biggest competitor, and is not shying away from the competition. During a panel discussion at the MIT Sloan CIO Symposium held May 20 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Staples CIO Tom Conophy explained his company’s intentions in its rivalry with the e-commerce giant.

“We’re going after Amazon in a big way,” declared Conophy. “We were an original disruptor in retail but lost our way. We didn’t see the onslaught of Amazon coming.”