When I talk to retailers about artificial intelligence, their eyes glaze over, like I’m speaking a foreign language and very few people want to talk about it. But it’s coming, it’s unavoidable. AI is going to pervade almost every aspect of retail, big and small.
Here's a case in point: The EPA estimates that a supermarket of 50,000 square feet, that's a large store but not excessively so, uses about $200,000 worth of electricity and natural gas in the course of a year. According to the EPA, about half of that cost is in refrigeration and lighting. Most such large stores have freezers that consumers go into to pick out their frozen food. But they also have a freezer in the back of the store that consumers don't see, where they keep their inventory. Now imagine this: the store hires a very smart young college graduate just to watch that freezer in the back. That employee's job is only to stand and watch the freezer door to minimize the number of times it gets opened and manage the thermostat accordingly to reduce the electrical cost. Over time, the employee learns how to make adjustments so that the door openings lead to the least amount of additional energy used to keep products cold.
Now imagine that instead of hiring a person, software could do the job. The software would have to learn how a store operates and the climate and temperature of the store region. That's the idea behind a company called COI Energy Services. In just a few hours, they can install and set up their software. Over a year's time, they will save a supermarket of 50,000 square feet $60,000 on their electric and gas costs, that’s 40% of their total costs. That's not theoretical, Publix Supermarkets, the fifth largest grocer in the country, uses the system and is rolling it out to all its stores.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2021/11/08/like-it-or-not-artificial-intelligence-is-coming-to-every-part-of-retail/?sh=f6c616a6c9f2
Here's a case in point: The EPA estimates that a supermarket of 50,000 square feet, that's a large store but not excessively so, uses about $200,000 worth of electricity and natural gas in the course of a year. According to the EPA, about half of that cost is in refrigeration and lighting. Most such large stores have freezers that consumers go into to pick out their frozen food. But they also have a freezer in the back of the store that consumers don't see, where they keep their inventory. Now imagine this: the store hires a very smart young college graduate just to watch that freezer in the back. That employee's job is only to stand and watch the freezer door to minimize the number of times it gets opened and manage the thermostat accordingly to reduce the electrical cost. Over time, the employee learns how to make adjustments so that the door openings lead to the least amount of additional energy used to keep products cold.
Now imagine that instead of hiring a person, software could do the job. The software would have to learn how a store operates and the climate and temperature of the store region. That's the idea behind a company called COI Energy Services. In just a few hours, they can install and set up their software. Over a year's time, they will save a supermarket of 50,000 square feet $60,000 on their electric and gas costs, that’s 40% of their total costs. That's not theoretical, Publix Supermarkets, the fifth largest grocer in the country, uses the system and is rolling it out to all its stores.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/richardkestenbaum/2021/11/08/like-it-or-not-artificial-intelligence-is-coming-to-every-part-of-retail/?sh=f6c616a6c9f2
