Google Cloud has launched new artificial intelligence (AI) solutions that perform necessary everyday tasks for retailers.
These solutions help merchants check inventory, facilitate product discovery, personalize shopping experiences and recommend products to customers, Google Cloud said in a Friday (Jan. 13) press release.
“Upheavals over the last few years have reshaped the retail landscape and the tools retailers need to be more efficient, more compelling to their customers and less exposed to future shocks,” Google Cloud Vice President of Retail and Consumer Carrie Tharp said in the release.
Other companies that provide cloud services have also been expanding their range of AI-powered offerings.
Microsoft acquired AI and speech technology from Nuance Communications in March 2022 in order to add conversational AI and ambient intelligence to its cloud offerings and is reportedly in talks with OpenAI to increase its existing investment in the creator of the ChatGPT chatbot.
Similarly, Amazon and Amazon Web Services (AWS) extended their partnership with AI company Veritone to help media and entertainment companies deploy AI-powered workflows and add tools that optimize content production, management and monetization.
One of the new AI solutions announced Friday uses Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Vision to identify products from images supplied by cameras mounted on a ceiling or held by an employee or a robot in order to provide an inventory count.
Another new feature launched by Google Cloud uses machine learning to curate the products shown on an eCommerce website once a shopper has selected a category. This joins Google Cloud’s existing Discovery AI solutions.
A third new offering adds a product-pattern recognizer to the company’s Retail Search solution to determine an online shopper’s preferences and customize the product they see when they search or browse the merchant’s site.
The fourth new AI-powered tool upgrades Google Cloud’s Recommendations AI to optimize the product recommendations shown to online shoppers and to recommend repeat purchases to existing customers.
“Despite uncertainty, the retail industry has enormous opportunity,” Tharp said in the release. “The leaders of tomorrow will be those who address today’s most pressing in-store and online challenges with the newest technology tools, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
For all PYMNTS retail coverage, subscribe to the daily Retail Newsletter.
We’re always on the lookout for opportunities to partner with innovators and disruptors.
Learn More