We've all heard by now about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and it's applications. Either you've heard of chatgpt or you've seen a video/tweet or something else on the internet telling you how you'll soon lose your job due to AI.

This article talks about the effects of AI in the E-commerce field and what the implementation of AI solution means for the field. AI is integrated into almost every parts of our daily lives and specifically in E-commerce with things like chatbots and recommendations engines, you'll learnabout what this means for you and your business in this article.

so what is AI ?

Definition of AI

Computers are not ordinarily equipped with the capability to sort through emails, read through their contents and sort them out by their level of relevance, but our email spam filters do that. They are also are not ordinarily equipped with the ability to hold conversations with humans like chatbots do. But this feats which have become generally acceptable realities have been achieved with the help of AI technology.

Artificial Intelligence is a technology that aims to produce machines capable of performing humane tasks that would normally not be achievable otherwise. As we see in the cases of email spam filters, AI chatbots and many more AI technologies.

What does it mean for E-commerce

E-commerce is a field that involves the operation of business services over the internet with the use of electronic devices. It has made great impact on businesses by not only easing business operations but by also opening up the business to a wider audience thanks to the use of the internet.

The problem with this comes from the increase in clients and the corresponding increase in the number of requests, enquiries, and factors to be considered to keep products relevant for all markets.

This is where the first and most common application of AI in E-commerce comes up.

Applications & Benefits of AI in E-commerce

• AI chatbots are being used by businesses worldwide to help automate various parts of business interactions.This means that you have a worker that is always available to respond to your clients needs at all times and can be programmed to give your preferred responses to common business enquiries repetitively.

Check out this article to learn more about chatbots and their impacts on businesses - Everything You Need to Know About Chatbots for Business

• Product Recomendation systems are used by businesses on their site to help improve user experience.

Imagine yourself as a prospective buyer on a business' site shopping for a portable laptop with specific properties like a RAM of 8gb and perhaps a laptop with a backlit keyboard, the recommendation system of the site analyses this key properties that you need and brings up all the laptops that have said specifications or similar ones. This makes the shopping experience smooth and more enjoyable for you as a client.

• Image recognition - sometimes you might want to purchase a nice product you've come across somewhere but do not know the name of said product.

The image recognititon technology is of great use in this type of situations. This means that if the buyer has an image of the desired object and uploads it onto the sytem, the system can proceed to sort through and filter the products on the site to help you find the product you're looking for.

• Business analytics - AI applications are being integrated into e-commerce sites and are being used to recieve detailed analysis of business performance over a specific period of time.

This type of analysis helps to ensure that businesses are utilising their oportunities well. Result of analysis will show business owners what calls to their audience and what doesn't and they can then utilise this knowledge in future operations to improve their overall business performance.

Though there are all these benefits, there are also quite a fewAl

Challenges

• Data challenges

  Data is a huge factor in the implementation of AI solutions to businesses, since analysing business performance and other AI applications essentially rely on data.

It is sometimes difficult to deal with data as even a little problem with data like inconsistency or missing values can make a huge difference in the performance of the AI model.

• Drop in quality of customer service

  With online interactions being taken over by chatbots it can be a bit rigid for clients as computers only do what they have been programmed to. This means they have a limited set of responses to the limited sort of questions they have programmed for.

It has also been concluded from sufficient research that over 65% of clients are likely to change brands when they don't get a personalised experience.

Conclusion

In this article you've gained a proper understanding of AI and its effects in the E-commerce sector, and you now have the adequate knowledge required to upskill your business with AI.

You have also gained the required knowledge to help ensure that you take appropiate measures so as to counter any negatives that might occur as a result of using it.

written by - Iqma

courtesy- Retailoop