The field of eCommerce continues to be a hotbed for emerging technologies. On one level, online stores are competing with other online stores. But on another level, online stores have to compete with the conventional marketplace of physical stores. One of the key differentiators is artificial intelligence which is making significant inroads into addressing the inherent flaws of eCommerce. Earlier prototypes of artificial intelligence were known to be brittle and prone to wide margins of error.

Technology has transformed how customers and brands interact with each other. Shoppers once relied on face-to-face, in-store interactions to make purchases and receive support. Now, shoppers do their research before entering a store (81 percent of shoppers conduct online research before buying) and seldom rely on salespeople to help them make decisions. Retailers, for their part, have realized that by embracing technology, they can extend their storefronts to their customers' fingertips. The Internet, buy buttons, mobile payment apps such as Square and Venmo, and couponing and price-matching apps like SnipSnap have changed how we shop.

Reflektion*–which delivers innovative "individualized commerce" technology for retailers–recently announced it has raised 18 million in Series B financing led by Battery Ventures. Here, Powered by Battery chats with CEO Sean Moran about the how the company is aiming to transform digital retail, partly by leveraging new types of artificial-intelligence technologies. Powered by Battery: We hear a lot about "personalization" and predictive analytics when it comes to online retail. How does Reflektion and "individualized commerce" fit in? What exactly do you do?

E-Commerce has exploded in recent years, with consumers choosing to make many of their purchases online in favor of traveling to brick-and-mortar locations. However, there are many retail sectors where consumers still prefer to buy in-person, even if their pre-purchase research is largely aided by online channels. Apparel is one area that fits this pattern, with consumers wanting to try on sizes, see how the products actually look, and wear them to ensure an adequate level of comfort. In addition, consumers of specialty retailers enjoy the in-store experience due to the knowledgeable sales associates who are able to educate them and guide them towards relevant products and services. For this reason, many retailers have struggled to match the online shopping experience with the traditional brick-and-mortar shopping experience.

Millions of people in the last year or so have bought microphones so that Amazon.com AMZN 1.42 % could listen in on them at home. And I just got more, built into new speakers called the Tap and the Echo Dot. Some day, Amazon could be embedded in appliances, listening all over your house. Why would you want that?

Millions of people in the last year or so have bought microphones so that Amazon.com AMZN 1.58 % could listen in on them at home. And I just got more, built into new speakers called the Tap and the Echo Dot. Some day, Amazon could be embedded in appliances, listening all over your house. Why would you want that?

Millions of people in the last year or so have bought microphones so that Amazon.com AMZN 1.63 % could listen in on them at home. And I just got more, built into new speakers called the Tap and the Echo Dot. Some day, Amazon could be embedded in appliances, listening all over your house. Why would you want that?

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Hitachi recently announced the development of "EMIEW3," a humanoid robot, and its "remote brain" robotics IT platform. This platform was developed to provide necessary services and guidance in stores and public facilities. Enhanced by the "remote brain" consisting of a robotics IT platform connected to cloud-based intelligent processing systems and a remote operation system to monitor and control multiple robots at various locations, EMIEW3 is able to provide high quality services. Since the announcement of "EMIEW" in 2005, Hitachi has continued to develop human symbiotic robots that can safely co-exist with humans, providing robot-based services with advanced communication capabilities. Using EMIEW2, first announced in 2007, Hitachi developed functions necessary for customer and guidance services, and demonstrated capabilities which include autonomous mobility at a brisk human walking pace, isolation of human voice from background noise, accessing information from the Web to identify objects and using indoor network cameras as "eyes" to locate objects. More recently, artificial intelligence technology was applied for functions requiring advanced intelligent processing such as for dialogue with appropriate response to questions posed in different forms and predictive function to avoid collision with moving objects which may suddenly appear from blind angles.

The Brand AI can analyse this liquid big data using its machine learning capabilities to create dynamic real-time personalised actionable insights seamlessly across a customer's physical and digital experience – it is the heartbeat of the retailer's invisible omni-channel offering. For example, the Brand AI can advise in-store sales staff in advance what specific products a customer wants or needs that particular day to help personalise this human interaction, provide on the spot guidance and critical feedback about products available immediately to drive a purchasing decision, or tailor in-store digital experiences such as virtual reality or media walls to create genuine moments of customer delight. In addition, the AI can capture the customer's emotional and physical reactions via wearables to these experiences (such as a raised heartbeat when seeing a new product for the first time); such insights can then be explored later by the customer (including socially with family and friends) using the AI on the retailer's integrated digital channel to sustain their retention. A further opportunity for using Brand AI is its potential ability to streamline inventory management to improve the customer experience and reduce operating risk.