News stories abound about physical retail stores closing across the United States. Yet, according to data the Commerce Department released earlier this year, online sales only accounted for 8.1 percent of total retail sales in 2016, meaning shoppers still spend the vast majority of their money in stores. And those stores could be getting a jolt, thanks to augmented reality. Augmented reality -- digital information brought into a user's field of view and overlaid onto the real world, which they usually observe through a smartphone or tablet's camera -- has the potential to reshape the retail environment. Not only can AR let customers see digital representations of products before they commit to a purchase, but it also can remove products from store shelves, highlight certain merchandise and provide more information about it.

Walmart took another shot at Amazon when it revealed its "Scan & Go" technology, which allows shoppers to pay for products in stores by scanning them on their smartphones. The service, which is currently being tested in some locations, directly competes with Amazon Go, a store without checkout lines. Walmart had rolled out its Scan & Go technology a few years ago, but it failed to catch on. However, new data from the 2017 Walker Sands Future of Retail Report suggests it could be more popular with consumers this time around. The annual report, based on responses from more than 1,600 U.S. consumers, found 60 percent of Americans are open to shopping in checkout-less stores.

Then, there's what Tang calls the "reverse-engineered" version of the Markable technology. When a visitor clicks on a piece of clothing on AKIRA's shop, they'll be able to see if it has ever been modeled by a celebrity or fashion blogger. Click on a shirt, and you may see a photo of when that same shirt was previously worn by Taylor Swift. Shoppers then have the option of "completing the look" by buying the rest of T-Swift's ensemble.

The steady decline in business profitability across the retail industry threatens to erode future investment, innovation and shareholder value. Fortunately, the age of AI-powered retail is upon us, promising an unprecedented amount of data and information that, if used in the right way, can help retailers grow their businesses and at the same time revolutionize the customer experience. Thanks to Amazon's Alexa and Google Home, the technology is becoming more pervasive. It's changing how we shop, how we experience brands and how we live our everyday lives. As AI becomes normal for today's consumers, it's hard to believe that, as recently as the turn of the Millennium, the technology was mostly restricted to science fiction and the horizon-scans of the most forward-thinking companies.

Here's this week's newsletter: Last week, VentureBeat invited Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM, and other giants of AI into a big tent with brands like Coca-Cola, The New York Times, Tumi, and Walmart, as well as such promising startups as Bark.us, The gathering was MB 2017, and the need for practical AI was on nearly everyone's mind. Walmart, for instance, is using machine learning to better serve its 140 million weekly shoppers and to make new services possible. Laurent Desegur, vice president of customer experience engineering at WalmartLabs, explained the role of data science to make possible so-called Pick-up Towers within stores, which allow customers to order and pay online for items and then retrieve them, skipping the checkout lines. Desegur also described a 20-store pilot of Scan and Go shopping, a self-serve experience.

With a forecast 80 billion connected devices by 2025, the Internet of Things (IoT) is set to transform the way business operates. From AI to VR and the IoT, technology is already having a marked impact on the way businesses maximise profit, improve efficiency and operate. Virtual reality is set to change the way we train our workforces. It enables trainers to deliver learning in an interesting and interactive way. They can present large amounts of complex information visually, to aid learning and help students retain information.

Machine learning and AI are expected to be big with retailers in the coming year, as more than 86% of CMO's say they are planning to invest in it in 2017, according to a study by Persado that was emailed to Retail Dive. Almost half (47%) of respondents said they plan to invest up to $50 million in the technology, while a quarter plan to spend over $100 million on it. Effective customer engagement topped the list of benefits that marketers hope to receive from an investment in AI, where engagement "is considered foremost as a driver of revenue (37%) and to a much lesser extent, brand awareness (13%)," the report states. Despite the possibility of using technology to drive personalization, only 22% of those surveyed felt skilled at emotionally engaging customers through their content, something the researchers believe might be a result of data collection that is limited to demographic and location data. There's no question that AI is a growing field for retailers.

According to MarketsandMarkets, the global retail analytics market will likely more than double in size during 2015-2020, totaling about $5.1 billion at the end of the forecast period. The adoption of analytics solutions is increasing as more enterprises worldwide are realizing significant returns from using BI and analytics platforms and services. Of late, many retailers seem to be jumping on the AI bandwagon to improve their marketing efforts. Sailthru, a marketing technology company, published a study that included a survey with more than 200 retail marketers. Over the course of 2017, these retailers plan to leverage AI to expand their mobile and social media marketing strategies aside from improving customer journeys.

Big data, the Internet of Things, and social media have all forever changed the art and science of marketing and that's already old news. To even remain relevant in the near future, marketers need to provide personalized experiences at the speed and scale only automation can fulfill. Artificial Intelligence for Marketing provides marketers with a comprehensive introduction to the field of data science without requiring a background in advanced programming and mathematics. Today's marketing decision-making happens in real time, every day, and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) give marketers a hands-free way to quickly and effectively respond to data from a customer or potential buyer and tailor fit a product and buying experience. Buyers on the fence can automatically receive special incentives to buy, and other customers can be directed to related products and services based on data-driven insight.

The store found some help in its war against Amazon. Walmart is coming off an 11-day rally, it's longest since 1995. In the future, Walmart shoppers may not have to ask for help. Just a simple scowl could summon a helpful worker ready to assist. A recent patent filing suggests new ways the nation's top retailer wants to get even closer to its customers: a video system that a system keeps tabs on customers' facial expressions as they move through the store and the movements at checkout lines.