IBM Watson could replace product manager
Cognitive computer systems such as IBM's Watson are able to combine data from a wide variety of sources to create a meaningful customer profile. For example, Watson can link internally available data on customer history with the customer's publicly accessible social media profile.
A customer who regularly takes a holiday in the mountains could be provided with data on local events or the weather in real time by intelligent platforms such as Watson, and receive a completely individual holiday offer depending on their media usage. Marilies Rumpold-Preining, IBM Watson Customer Engagement Executive for Germany, Switzerland and Austria specifies:
"Watson can simply process a wealth of data, enabling it to make novel correlations and generate new ideas that even an experienced marketer wouldn't think of so quickly!"
Find substitution products
In addition, Watson could not only control the content of the customer approach, but also make individual suggestions in terms of channel and frequency. According to Marlies Rumpold-Preining, communication rules based on the credo: "If a customer has bought product A and B, he will then be offered product C, because he should also like that" would soon be a thing of the past.
"Digitization combined with cognitive technologies or artificial intelligence holds enormous advantages for retailers in addressing their customers," says Melisa Hadzic, Head of Internet World Messe. "After all, it would be a great added value for the shop operator not just to assume or guess what his customers want, when and where. The retailer who masters this task first will gain immense competitive advantages."
New business models
In summary, it is not a good idea for retailers to put off digitizing their business. Especially in retail, whose points of sale are increasingly converging, so many touchpoints with the customer are created from which companies can learn as in hardly any other industry. Retailers who want to grow and still be successful in 10 years' time must therefore invest in a digital infrastructure now and begin to deal intensively with the topic.
Dr Jens-Uwe Meyer, innovation thought leader, author and management consultant explains, "SMEs need to learn to turn the clock back to zero hour and ask themselves 'If they were to start the company today - would it be the same?'" He adds, "Business models are not just being digitized, they are being completely reinvented.
This process will not stop.
With new technologies, companies will be forced to continually rethink and reinvent their business models in the coming years."
More about Big Data development, about Artificial Intelligence (AI), cognitive computer systems in retail can be found at forums of the Internet World trade fair, which takes place from 7 to 8 March 2017 at Messe München.
