Online retailers in the US spent an average of $400k on AI last year
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U.S. businesses have spent $403,000 on average over the past year to develop or implement AI-powered customer experience tools, according to a survey of executives at 300 large and mid-sized e-commerce companies in the U.S. and Europe conducted by content management system provider Storyblok.
Nearly a third (30%) of respondents said using AI has only made a slight improvement in their customers' digital experience. However, most (97%) of the respondents said their AI has delivered a good return on investment, the survey found.
Among the common reasons why U.S. businesses adopted AI were customer service (61%), marketing analysis (60%), automating administrative tasks (42%), translation services (41%) and content creation (40%).
As the AI race intensifies, U.S. businesses are pouring resources into the technology.
Almost a third (30%) of the executives surveyed said their companies had spent more than $500,000 on their AI investments. But the report also illustrates the mixed results execs see after using AI despite spending hundreds of thousands of dollars.
'The transformative potential of AI for the digital experience is enormous, but our research highlights a clear gap between expectation and reality,' Dominik Angerer, CEO and co-founder of Storyblok, said in a press release. 'While U.S. businesses are seeing some improvements, these remain incremental rather than truly transformative.'
Nevertheless, major brands and retailers have been using generative AI to create content and assist with administrative tasks. Last month, Walmart unveiled Wally, its generative AI tool that helps merchants enter and analyze data, identify product performance issues and answer operational questions. Earlier this month, L'Oréal Groupe announced its use of Google Imagen 3 and Gemini multimodal models to help its marketers build new concepts, create storyboards and redesign packaging.
With more companies tapping into generative AI applications, retail execs at recent conferences have discussed both the potential and limitations of the technology. Retailers and technology companies at Shoptalk Spring discussed AI use cases ranging from localized ads to speeding along customer service work.
Although retailers have been piloting the technology in areas like supply chains and personalization, companies remain largely in the exploratory phase. For the foreseeable future, the industry will rely heavily on a human touch, Target CEO Brian Cornell said during the National Retail Federation's Big Show conference.
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