BENGALURU: Consumers, especially online shoppers, now prefer quicker product recommendations and hyper-personalised content. Retail firms are trying to offer these experiences with the help of Generative AI, which transforms the shopping experience. Retailers view this as a transformative tech that helps them onboard more new customers.
As much as 71% of consumers want Gen AI to be integrated into their purchasing experiences, according to Capgemini Research Institute's annual consumer trends report. In its report titled 'What Matters to Today's Consumer', it finds that technological innovation is playing a significant role and is also fuelling consumer behaviours.
Nearly half (46%) of consumers are enthusiastic about the impact of Gen AI on their online shopping and three quarters are open to Gen AI recommendations, up from 63% in 2023. About 58% have replaced traditional search engines with Gen AI tools as their go-to for product/service recommendations, according to the report.
Close to 68% of consumers want Gen AI tools to aggregate search results from online search engines, social media platforms, and retailers’ websites to provide a one-stop shop for highlighted purchase options.
About 7 in 10 consumer products and retail companies view Gen AI as a transformative technology, a significant shift from last year, says the report.
However, the report finds that while investment in the technology is on the rise, Gen AI usage is not meeting expectations. Consumer satisfaction with the technology is down from last year (at 37% in 2024 compared to 41% in 2023). The report highlights that it is important for retailers to understand where and how consumers want the technology implemented.
“Consumers today want personalised shopping experiences, enhanced by AI and generative AI. In addition, they expect fast and efficient deliveries and have become more conscious of their purchasing impact,” said Lindsey Mazza, global retail lead at Capgemini.
“To remain competitive and build brand loyalty, retailers must adopt strategies that put the consumer at the center, leveraging AI to deliver seamless yet exceptional customer interactions. The clear shift towards social commerce is also significant. Retailers need to capitalise on their social and digitaladvertising platforms to engage consumers early in the purchasing journey," Mazza added.
Some retailers are already trying a virtual store in the metaverse as it will make users shop and also experience the brand digitally. Retail companies are offering personalised product recommendations by using Gen AI and large language models so as to enhance the shopping experience. According to EY, GenAI is transitioning from the initial hype to real world applications to rolling out POCs (proof of concepts).
EY analysis suggests that the adoption of GenAI varies widely across different types of enterprises.