Artificial intelligence is touching almost every industry in the ongoing era of digital transformation. But what does it mean? Put simply, AI and machine learning -- a closely related idea -- are computer programs that emulate and learn human behavior to then make autonomous decisions. AI can be especially transformative in retail, helping almost every aspect of a retailer's business -- from utilizing data to drive sales, to automating the supply chain, or to hyper-personalize the customer experience. While AI can sound like some far-off idea, it's closer than you may think.

"TechStyle brands utilize machine learning to cluster similar products based on different attributes, such as color, fabric, heel height, review information, etc., which then match customer clusters with product clusters to show users the most relevant information." This Los-Angeles based, avant-garde fashion group, which includes brands like, ShoeDazzle, Fabletics and JustFab, seamlessly ties personalization and vertical integration to create a winning combination of brick-and-mortar stores with online retail. We spoke to Danielle Boeglin, vice president of data analytics at TechStyle Fashion Group, to understand how the company marries data and fashion so successfully. From her approach toward customer experience to the role of AI and ML in personalization, Boeglin shares the most useful lessons for marketers in the digital retail space. In this exclusive with Martech Advisor, she throws light on TechStyle's experience with integrating the various components of their martech stack, and more.

Notonthehighstreet has launched a new iOS app feature which uses machine learning and image recognition to allow customers to shop directly from its Christmas catalogue. Rather than scanning in barcodes, QR codes or having to search for product numbers, users can hold their phone over an image in the catalogue, which then instantly finds the product and makes it available for purchase through the app. "We wanted to better connect our customers offline and online experience," says Richard Zubrik, Chief Technology Officer at Notonthehighstreet. "Discoverability is a key development area for us, so this feature is just one way we're making it easier for our customers to shop with us. We know that people love browsing our catalogue, and many do so while also searching our site through their mobile, this new feature removes the need to hunt down product codes and brings people the perfect thoughtful gift instantly."

Today, the retail experience is much more complex than it's ever been before, and often long checkout lines, low inventory, and overpriced items can drive consumers away from making a purchase. As we quickly approach the largest retail moment of the year on Black Friday and Cyber Monday, it's important for retailers to provide a targeted shopping experience that checks off all the boxes on their customers' wish lists. These poorly targeted marketing messages have pushed shoppers away from certain stores and led them into the hands of competitors that have the technical capabilities to understand their needs. The root of the issue is that customers want to feel unique and need reassurance that they aren't just an unidentified blip in the system. Today, they expect their frequently visited shops and stores to know them by name, pay close attention to their wants and needs, and predict what types of items they'd like in the future.

Almost every known large industry today produces and distributes goods at scale over a supply chain. In a typical supply chain, as a product travels across the network of supply chain nodes–from the producer, to the intermediate nodes (e.g pre-processor, distributor etc.), all the way to the end consumer–each node adds'value' to the product until it is ready to be sold off at the final node (e.g. retail stores). Supply chains are customarily designed and operated to minimise costs or maximise profits (or both). One of the most important considerations is to decide'when' and'how' much to replenish each product at each node of the supply chain, as it proceeds from production to consumption. While this customary approach works well for products that'do not perish' or have an unlimited shelf life, a straightforward extension of this approach for perishable products (e.g. According to United Nation's FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) roughly one-third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year (approximately 1.3 billion tons) gets lost or wasted.

"Mitchell knows what she's talking about. Artificial Intelligence has significantly improved my knowledge when it comes to automation technology, [but] the greater benefit is that it has also enhanced my appreciation for the complexity and ineffability of human cognition."―John "Without shying away from technical details, this survey provides an accessible course in neural networks, computer vision, and natural-language processing, and asks whether the quest to produce an abstracted, general intelligence is worrisome . . . Mitchell's view is a reassuring one." "In Mitchell's telling, artificial intelligence (AI) raises extraordinary issues that have disquieting implications for humanity. AI isn't for the faint of heart, and neither is this book for nonscientists . . . "Artificial intelligence can trounce you at chess, but will mistake a school bus for an ostrich or make bizarre connections between birds and hydrants.

Black Friday or Cyber Monday, take your pick; it's that time of year again. If you're in the market for a smartphone -- and it's statistically likely you are, given that 403.5 million handsets shipped last holiday season -- there's no better month to seek out promotions, discounts, and limited-time deals on new devices. Samsung is hosting a sale on Galaxy phones including the Galaxy S10e, S10, S10 Plus, and S10 5G, and OnePlus recently knocked $150 off the price of the OnePlus 7 Pro. Carriers like T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, and Verizon are awarding up to $700 in trade-in credits, and as for retailers, there's the usual doorbusters. It's almost too much of a good thing -- particularly if you aren't committed to a brand, a model, or a manufacturer. Conventional wisdom would have you judge a device by its screen or perhaps its camera, but we took a different tack last year with our guide to the best phones for the AI enthusiast.

Purchases you make through our links may earn us a commission. Using a robot vacuum is a great way to delegate the routine maintenance of sweeping up your home. They're also a great item to pick up during Black Friday sales. Every year we've seen steep discounts on all our top-cleaning favorites, and this year looks to be no different. If you've been thinking about getting a robot vacuum but haven't because they've been a bit too pricey, now's the perfect chance to see if they're right for you.

Organizations in all industries have a large number of physical documents. It can be difficult to extract text from a scanned document when it contains formats such as tables, forms, paragraphs, and check boxes. Organizations have been addressing these problems with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, but it requires templates for form extraction and custom workflows. Extracting and analyzing text from images or PDFs is a classic machine learning (ML) and natural language processing (NLP) problem. When extracting the content from a document, you want to maintain the overall context and store the information in a readable and searchable format.

Just a few weeks ago, I told you about 7 new languages supported by Amazon Translate, our fully managed service for machine translation. Well, here I am again, announcing no less than 22 new languages and variants, as well as 6 additional AWS Regions where Translate is now available. Introducing 22 New Languages And Variants That's what I call an update! In addition to existing languages, Translate now supports: Afrikaans, Albanian, Amharic, Azerbaijani, Bengali, Bosnian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Dari, Estonian, Canadian French, Georgian, Hausa, Latvian, Pashto, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian, Somali, Swahili, Tagalog, and Tamil. Congratulations if you can name all countries and regions of origin: I couldn't!