Andrew spoke to Graham Stuart on the Radio Scotland breakfast show about a new report Andrew has produced with Kingfisher, looking at the future of Retail, and how consumer attitudes towards using AI for shopping are rapidly changing.
More details can be found in the press release from Kingfisher.
Interview Transcript
Graham Stuart
Thank you very much for that. Now, do you find shopping overwhelming in a bit of a chore? If you do new research, is suggesting that more of us are turning to smart trolleys and artificial intelligence to recommend products. Let’s speak to the Futurist. Andrew grill, good morning to you. Andrew Graham, good morning. Futurist, I’ve always believed is the coolest job title ever. So let’s, let’s lean on your expertise here. Ai shopping agents. What do they do?
Andrew Grill
Exactly, well, AI is being embraced by consumers. What we found in this research is that shoppers are wanting to have a better experience. Everyone’s playing with generative AI tools like chat, GPT, they’re now saying what’s next? I can research my shopping. I can find the best tool for my job, can I actually now get it to do some of the shopping for me? And we’re finding that when they research the consumers are looking to embrace that.
Graham Stuart
So that’s AI, I guess, knowing you your preferences, what you like, and I guess other aspect of it is taking out the drudgery of online shopping, because it’s something that’s quite complicated, going through the process of putting things in a basket and going through the checkout, we will take care of everything with it. It will go
Andrew Grill
beyond that. It will start to anticipate what you need. So if you’re doing a home improvement project, it’ll know about what you’re looking to do, what you’re looking to achieve. It look at the best products, maybe even look at the services that you need to go with that. So it’s almost like having a little home improvement assistant sitting next to you. So next to you saying, here all the things you need, I’ll go and buy them for you. I’ll let you know when it’s done.
Graham Stuart
There’s a suggestion that these services could automatically make purchases without your permission. What would the advantage in that be? Well, a lot
Andrew Grill
of things are quite tedious, especially when you’re purchasing things you buy all the time. Our research showed, and I was actually quite surprised that consumers are happy to let AI spend up to 99 pounds on their behalf, and that actually matches the contactless limit. So it’s a bit like giving your phone to someone at the bar saying you go and buy the round of drinks with my phone, and you hope that they do the right thing. So this means that consumers are taking early steps to say, Okay, I’ll allow the AI to do some of the work for me, but not all of it.
Graham Stuart
So might that be more relevant for, say, supermarket shopping, stuff that we buy regularly?
Andrew Grill
I think retail generally will adopt this, because, as you say, you want to remove the friction in shopping. The research I looked at looks at a thing called the Endless Aisle. So everything that you want will be available through the one, one supplier, the one company that you deal with. So you’ll you’ll give your your requirements, and it’ll actually remove all that friction and provide the products and services that you need, maybe actually surface things you weren’t
Graham Stuart
aware of. And what will this mean for physical retail stores? Do you think? Well, I
Andrew Grill
think physical restart retail stores are coming to their own because people actually want to have an experience. The research also showed the rise of what we call digital. This is physical and digital, and especially in home improvement. If you’re looking to do a new kitchen, you’re looking to do something that involves a lot of money and time. You want to go and experience that, you want to go and ask an expert. So I think we’re going to see retail, physical stores, come into their own where you can’t do all the research you need online. You want to go and look and touch and feel it and talk to an expert, and maybe talk to somebody in the community that’s also done it before.
Graham Stuart
Well, that will be a relief for anyone who’s running a shop listening to the programme Andrew grill Futurist.
