Tuesday's best early Black Friday deals on Amazon are on some of the most popular holiday gifts. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business incentives. Coming back from a long weekend is always hard, especially one that's so close to the holidays, like Veteran's Day. If you're just settling back into the office, chances are you could use a few distractions, and lucky for you, we've got five of them--specifically in the form of these great deals you can snag on Amazon.

In 2002, Target hired statistician Andrew Pole. His job was to use predictive analytics -- a form of statistics that makes predictions by observing data trends -- to help the retail giant market certain products to certain groups of people. Along those lines, Pole's first task was to identify pregnant women -- specifically women in their second trimester. As Target's marketing team explained to him, new parents are extremely valuable customers whose brand loyalty tends to change when they have kids because they purchase things they probably weren't purchasing before -- like diapers, formula, baby clothes, etc. New parents also tend to be physically exhausted and therefore more prone to do all of their shopping at one place.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning enable Retailers to boost their bottom lines, in part by showing when it's not necessary to offer a discount.

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.

The retail industry in India, and globally, has been in a state of flux. With the euphoria around e-commerce having tempered, online retailers understood the importance of selling through stores even as offline players realised how significant the internet is for future growth. Yet, despite acknowledging the importance to co-exist through an "omnichannel model," most Indian retailers have not managed to successfully crack the code of offering shoppers the best of both worlds. But there's some inspiration they can take from Tesco, UK's leading supermarket. The 100-year old company operates in nine markets, including China, India, Malaysia, Poland, and Slovakia.

Analyzing data to improve retail sales is not new. What is new is the volume of data and sophisticated machine-learning algorithms to analyze it. Data science is the processing and analysis of large datasets -- structured or unstructured. Tweets from customers and prospects is an example of unstructured data. Most of the data-science algorithms have been used for years; many pre-date the first computer.

Amazon will take the next step in its bid to take over the food delivery market with its own company-branded grocery stores. In a report from CNET, an Amazon spokesperson confirmed the company's intention to open the first-ever Amazon-branded grocery store in Los Angeles. While the company hasn't released many details, a job listing discovered by CNET suggest the store will be'Amazon's first grocery store' meaning it will likely carry the e-tailing giant's brand name. Amazon is making its first foray into company-branded grocery stores. The outlets will reportedly offer cheaper options compared to the Amazon-owned Whole Foods.

As the world is moving towards a digital age, traditional retailers face existential threats from the likes of Amazon and Walmart. To level the playing field, offline retailers are also turning to artificial intelligence as shoppers take a multichannel approach to making purchases. From helping customers find the items through visual search to personalizing their entertainment experience through chatbots, AI is revolutionizing the retail industry in a number of ways. Major retailers like Starbucks and Lowe's use AI to improve customer experience. Companies are investing hefty amounts on AI to stay on top of the game.

Artificial Intelligence is once again changing the way we shop. After disrupting the world of digital commerce, AI has seeped into the grassroots of consumerism and overhauled its next target -- retail stores. A study from Juniper Research predicts the adoption of AI in the retail industry will amount to a staggering figure of US$ 7.3 billion per year by 2022. In retail operations alone, AI has the potential to drive savings of about US$ 340 billion. Such striking figures paint a compelling picture of the prowess of AI in the retail backdrop.

Automation will drastically alter the workplace of the future. The number of processing jobs will shrink, but the ability to analyze, interpret, and think creatively will be even more prized. John Wasik's insightful Winning in the Robotic Workplace will help you get on the winning side of this powerful trend.