Survey: Retail leaders optimistic on AI's holiday impact
With the holiday season underway, large numbers of retailers are turning to AI to boost sales and better serve their customers.
Nearly all (92% ) retail executives say they will have customer-facing generative AI live for the holiday shopping season, according to a survey of retail executives from AI enterprise platform NLX. Only 6% said they would not, and 2% didn't know. Nearly six-in-10 (59%) say generative AI will have a significant impact on sales, while two-thirds (66%) say it will significantly impact customer satisfaction.
In other findings, only 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.
Among consumer-facing AI applications, conversation-based product recommendations were the most commonly cited features 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.
According to the survey, retail executives believe consumers have high expectations for generative AI applications, with 92% saying that shoppers expect retailers to include generative AI in their shopping experience.
[READ MORE: Walmart sees four AI trends dominant in 2025]
"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."
NLX’s 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-suite, owner, partner or president, while 92% work at companies with 500 or more employees.
