You’ve seen it in the headlines. You’ve probably seen it all over LinkedIn. You might even have used it. But what actually is Generative AI, and what does it mean for you and your business?
With a valuation of over $20 billion, OpenAI has paved the way for an accessible, mainstream implementation of artificial intelligence with a variety of use cases. The unique abilities of artificial intelligence, and its rapid progression, could mean millions of hours saved across the industry – and as it continues to develop at pace, the possibilities are limitless.
But the implementation of Generative AI and applying its vast capabilities has its own set of challenges. Where to start? When to start? What’s the regulatory landscape and what ethical considerations does your business need to make?
In this online session, RSM UK’s Senior Analyst for Technology Ben Bilsland explored the background behind Generative AI, its potential impact on your business, the regulatory landscape surrounding its use, and the opportunities that Generative AI presents for the retail industry, now and in the near future.
As well as this, Ben covered the next steps for retailers wishing to begin their journey into Generative AI for businesses.
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Introduction
Generative AI has been dominating the headlines in 2023, from ChatGPT to Grammarly and more – but what actually is generative AI, and what does its development mean for the future of retail?
Generative AI is defined as artificial intelligence that produces content in response to a prompt. The most popular example of this is ChatGPT – with GPT standing for generative pre-trained translator – which can communicate in a conversational manner easily, understanding the inferences of language and producing high-quality written content. This can be anything from a blog post to a recipe and even code.
From this, other platforms such as Adobe and Canva have implemented AI to alter images, such as changing backgrounds, adding features and even extending an image beyond its margins.
The capabilities of the content produced by generative AI could revolutionise the retail space, supercharging the productivity of your team. On the other hand, used incorrectly, this technology has the capability to produce inaccurate or even plagiarised information – and, beneath all that, there is the worry about AI “replacing” human staff.
Ben Bilsland, Senior Analyst for Technology at RSM UK, explores all of this and more in his deep dive into Generative AI for retail.
What is ChatGPT and why does it matter?
You’ve probably seen it all over LinkedIn, as well as featured in the news, but why is ChatGPT so important?
Produced by OpenAI, ChatGPT is an open-source generative AI platform that uses a conversational AI to respond to prompts. This style of communication allows individuals with little to no tech experience to use AI, widening the accessibility of the tool. Its success has led to significant investment, with Microsoft investing between 10 and 14 billion dollars.
This model is trained on a large amount of data, up to date with the internet up to 2019, allowing it to provide insightful responses. However, due to this, it may provide outdated information to certain questions. As well as this, ChatGPT and other AI tools have been found to produce “hallucinations” – incorrect information presented confidently enough to convince humans it is correct.
The implementation of ChatGPT has opened the doors to the immense potential of generative AI, but is also a key player in highlighting the current risks.
In the full webinar, Ben shows the amazing abilities of ChatGPT, while also highlighting the ease at which it makes mistakes confidently – watch now.
AI for written content generation
As ChatGPT is an AI language model, this is one of the most prevalent uses of the platform. For retailers, this could speed up the rate at which they produce written content, such as blogs, articles, and website landing pages – it can even adapt its writing style to match tone-of-voice guidelines and the language of social media sites such as LinkedIn.
An example of this in use is from Adidas: with over 600 similar pairs of socks for sale, generative AI was a great candidate for adding copy to these pages. This gave each pair of socks copy quickly, freeing up time for other members of the team.
However, this raises questions about regulation and intellectual property for the production of written content using Generative AI. As it is pre-trained on data up to 2019, it is debatable whether it can produce its own copy without pulling from pre-existing work – work created by humans. This begs the complicated question: is content generated by AI ever “unique”?
AI for image generation
In the full webinar, Ben shows an example of Adobe Photoshop using its generative AI tool to edit an image – watch the full webinar replay.
Technology like this has immense potential to support marketing and advertising teams. The ability to edit photographs quickly without any photo editing experience makes high-quality, bespoke imagery accessible to all. Things that were once complicated, like changing a background or adding special effects, are now simple to accomplish. This also has the potential to support social media marketing, with generative AI tools emerging that automatically brand your social media content.
However, this brings back to the surface the question of “replacement”. OpenAI has predicted that 19% of the workforce will see over 50% of their tasks impacted – but this may be a good thing.
Many retail professionals are now asking, if skills such as photo editing and branding become AI-generated, what will become of the skilled professionals in this area? The answer is that generative AI cannot exist without human prompting: there will always be a human at the helm to optimise prompts and control quality. AI cannot think creatively – it is the creativity and skill of people that drives it.
Ben describes generative AI as “supplementary” – not intended to replace people but to facilitate them to create high-quality content at high-speed.
What are some of the capabilities of generative AI?
Ben highlights six key areas where artificial intelligence can support retailers, such as:
- Text generation – from short sentences to entire articles
- Chatbots – making it simple to engage with customers online
- Image generation – high-quality visual content
- Code generation – create and explain functional code
- Summarisation – instantly sum up a document or concept
- Plugins – integrations with other software to make it more powerful
Learn more about these in the full replay.
How are retailers using AI?
Ben showed that many of the leading voices in retail are investing in AI, such as Amazon, Levi’s, Coca-Cola and more. As well as this, generative AI for digital advertising is projected to make up 13% of the total ad spend in the market – find the full data.
Some of the main areas affected by the implementation of AI will likely be:
- HR
- Content writing
- Supply chains
- Marketing and creativity
- Customer service
As all these roles feature in the retail industry, it’s predicted that AI will contribute to major changes – but what are the challenges of this?
Challenges for retailers when using generative AI
In the full webinar, Ben highlights five key areas of importance when considering the risks of implementing generative AI:
- Data management
- Automation
- Risk management
- Regulation
- Ethics
Generative AI regulation
The EU is likely to be one of the first to produce comprehensive legislation around AI, with regulations such as the Digital Services Act and the Digital Markets Act due to be released in the next year.
However, the UK sets itself apart from the EU, taking a “pro-innovation approach”. Read more in the full whitepaper.
With the UK currently standing in third place in the global AI economy, this approach gives the space to become a leading voice in generative AI and machine learning – many are looking towards Rishi Sunak’s October 2023 Global Summit for more information on the UK’s role in generative AI.
Conclusion
Generative AI comes with a host of risks, from hallucinations to intellectual property and more – however, the opportunities are endless, and it seems that UK retail is only at the beginning of what can be achieved using AI. Rather than imagining AI as a means to replace staff, consider it as a helpful tool to boost your team’s productivity and produce high-quality content.
Ultimately, it is the skill and confidence of your team that will define your success using AI tools.
To learn more about specific use cases for AI in retail, how best to optimise your AI prompts, and the data supporting the UK’s role in generative AI development, find the full webinar replay here.