Andrew Grill appeared on the BBC Radio Leeds breakfast show with Rima Ahmed to talk about a new report in partnership with Kingfisher about the future of retail, and how consumers are starting to use AI tools when they go shopping.
Interview Transcript
Rima Ahmed
You’re listening to breakfast with Rima on BBC Radio leads and imagine this, you’re at home, and your shopping gets done without you lifting a finger. Have you hired a butler? I ask? No, maybe you’re already adept at ordering online. New research shows that more than a quarter of us would happily let artificial intelligence make purchases for us. No approval needed, and most would trust it to spend up to 99 pounds. I’m not sure how I feel about this, so to tell us more, I’m joined by Futurist Andrew grill. Morning, Andrew
Andrew Grill
morning Rima good to be on the programme.
Rima Ahmed
Thank you so much for being with us. Talk to me here, because I am. I’m going to be honest, I don’t think I’m all the way on board with this. Well,
Andrew Grill
you write to be a sceptic. And I think with AI, people are still trying to work out how it works for them, but I’ve just done some research with kingfisher. They’re the people behind being Q and screw fix, and they asked me a huge question, what is the future of retail and surprise, surprise, when we go out to the market and we survey people, a lot of people are talking about AI, and some of the stats you mentioned even surprised me, the fact that people would be happy to let AI spend up to 99 pounds to buy something for them. But I think what we’ve seen in the last three years, and this month, chat, GPT turns three years old, we’ve had nearly 10 years of innovation, people are still finding new ways to use chat, GPT and other tools. They’re finding that they can write letters and get inspiration. I think what we’re now finding is, when it comes to more difficult projects like Home Improvement, you’re actually saying, I need some inspiration, and I’m going to give you a little bit of leverage. I’m going to let you buy some things up to 99 pounds. But I think as people start trusting the AI they see as you as you say, it’s a bit like having an AI Butler, if we trust that it can do the right thing, make decisions for us, give us inspiration. I think people may adopt this.
Rima Ahmed
It’s interesting though, isn’t it, because I know it’s really difficult having just moved house. It’s really difficult sometimes to imagine the things that you need in each room. It’s so funny. You know what you need for general life? And you move house, and suddenly you forget, oh, actually, that might need a cushion. And actually we do need a potato peeler and all those sorts of things. But this is taking it one step step further, isn’t it? This is saying, okay, AI, without me checking you make those decisions for me.
Andrew Grill
Well, AI is going to move to what we call anticipatory retail, where it’s going to anticipate. And the great thing about AI is it works at speed and scale. Now, if you sat down now that you’ve moved and a long list of all the things you’re going to need, you’re going to miss something off. But AI has seen probably hundreds, if not 1000s or millions of people that have also done lists and moved so imagine if you took a picture of your new room and basically asked, AI, what am I missing? And it went through knowing what you have already, and said, you need this, this and this, and this is what we’re talking about before. This is where it goes and says, You know what? Here’s a shopping list. If you’re okay spending up to 99 pounds. I’ll go and buy them for you and get them shipped tomorrow. Imagine the time you get back from not having to worry about that. But also it what doesn’t doesn’t miss things out because it, it really knows what you’ve got today. It knows what other people need for a bedroom. Have you thought about a lamp? Have you thought about a phone charger? Those sorts of things. That’s where I think people are going to say, You know what? It’s actually really helping
Rima Ahmed
me? Yeah, how will it know what I like? Though I’m so specific and niche in my in my taste, Andrew, or at least I think I am.
Andrew Grill
Well, quick question, do you use chat, GPT and other tools like that on a regular
Rima Ahmed
basis? I really don’t know. I don’t, I don’t. I’ve and I’ve never used it. No, I’m behind on this technology.
Andrew Grill
Well, hopefully after this interview, you’re going to start being a bit curious and start using it more. What I found I’ve been using his tools for, you know, three years now, it’s learned a lot about me. It’s learned what my tastes are, what my styles are, what I do and don’t like. It is like having that Butler or assistant sitting next to me looking over my shoulder, saying, You really think Purple’s the right colour for you. You’re a bit of a blue man. So I think if you let it start to learn more about you, just as a best friend knows about you and what birthday present you might like, you’re going to find that it becomes useful, rather than getting in the way. So AI will start to learn about us, and we’ll move into what we call agentic AI or AI agents. They will start to anticipate they will help us do things that we don’t like doing.
Rima Ahmed
I mean that it sounds like a good way to use the technology, but as a Futurist, there are, there are some concerns here, which we do have to talk about. For example, you know, just searching for AI, you know, asking AI to do a list for me when I can do it myself, and maybe miss something out that does have environmental impacts, doesn’t it that
Andrew Grill
it does? But I think what we’re finding is that the people that are doing these AI systems are actually in parallel, going, how can we make it more and more efficient? We saw back in January this year, the Chinese company deep seek, basically were able to do more with less. So we’re seeing that the. Systems can be made more and more efficient, and as people are using it, as they’re not overspending and over buying things they don’t need, that will help the environment. So the circular economy will come into this where we say, here’s all the things you do need. You don’t need these extra things. Don’t worry about buying those things.
Rima Ahmed
Yeah. What about the other concern that we’re just gonna we’re just gonna We’re sort of going to grow up in a generation where people don’t know how to do basic things because they keep asking AI to do it for them. We sort of we end up in a sort of like burning of the Alexandra library, and let we just lose a load of knowledge because we’re entrusting it to a computer rather than thinking about ourselves.
Andrew Grill
I get asked this all the time, and what worries me, on one hand, is what students are doing, that they are trusting these systems more than maybe they should, I think, and this is almost like a public service announcement. Don’t lose your ability to be a critical thinker just because the AI says X challenge that I said to someone I spoke to the other day. Next time you give an AI system a prompt, add an extra line, and that line is and justify your response, which means the AO works harder. It actually shows you how it’s thinking. And you can go, that’s how I’d approach that problem. I believe the answer you’re giving me, because I can see you’re working so don’t just trust it with what we call a one shot. Ask it to go deeper and ask it to explain its reasoning.
Rima Ahmed
I’m absolutely fascinated by all of this. I think, I think the right way to look at AI is to be fascinated and to be, you know, really vigilant about it as well. I reckon, is like you say, like, really think about what am I using this for, and how can it be more efficient? Andrew, have you let the AI do any shopping for you? What has it bought for you? If you have,
Andrew Grill
I have not let it buy things for me yet, because that’s an evolving space. But I’ve got to tell you the recommendations, the things that I see, taking a picture of something. Where can I get that? And it telling me, oh gosh, I love that. It just saves me so much time.
Rima Ahmed
There you go. Futurist Andrew grill, maybe this sounds right up your street. Have you done this sort of thing. Are you listening? Going, yep, the AI has helped me loads with whatever it is. What is that thing? Text me, eight, one, triple, three. Start your message with the word leads. Andrew, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
