UK Edition
Retailers lagging in pick-up of AI, Microsoft finds
Britain’s retailers are integrating artificial intelligence into their operations at a much slower pace than other major industries, Microsoft will reveal this week, casting a light on the crisis on the high street.
A research report by Microsoft, which will be released on Wednesday, will show that over half (56pc) of UK retail companies are still not using AI into their operations, when compared to 44pc of financial services companies and 40pc of manufacturers.
Of the leaders in the retail sector, around 61pc are currently using AI technology.
“Clearly, for the sector to thrive in the future, the speed of change must increase,” Microsoft will say. “Yet, in fact, many experts predict adoption will remain slow, particularly in the big box retail sector due to the challenges of scaling their digital offer quickly and cost-effectively enough to compete with native online retailers.
“What is clear is that change cannot be ignored. AI will impact retailers of all shapes and sizes.”
The latest study follows a tumultuous year for the retail sector, as companies have struggled with a cocktail of rising wage bills, business rates and falling footfall. According to the Centre for Retail Research, in the first six months of this year, 24 major retailers had failed, hitting almost 2,000 stores, with names such as Toys R Us, Maplin and Poundworld exiting the high street.
Helen Dickinson, the chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said AI could be a really important tool for bricks-and-mortar retailers in their battle to compete with online natives: “The high street is reinventing itself, adapting to changing consumer behaviour and increased competition for leisure time.
“AI is going to be an increasing part of that picture and along with structural changes to the way consumers and retailers interact, will be part of the positive transformation story of the retail industry.”
Microsoft will publish the figures on the retail sector as part of a wider review of how well British businesses are adopting artificial intelligence, as it launches its Future Decoded event this week.
The company has undertaken a whole raft of AI initiatives over recent years, putting the development of social and ethical AI at the centre of its strategy.
Microsoft chief technology office Michael Wignall said: “I think one of the big benefits of artificial intelligence, and this is definitely the Microsoft position, is that we want to democratise the value of AI, we want it to be available not just for the biggest corporations but all the way down to the small companies as well.
“We can invest in the capability and the platform, we build this tooling and do the heavy lifting so that small startups or SMEs can have the same enterprise-grade quality AI capability that a big company can.”