The rise of the robots – will AI replace our retail jobs?

As digital technology advances at lighting speed, many predict that AI, machine learning and automation will remove over half of all retail jobs in the next 20 years. With countless bold statements in the media, this can often appear as a certainty – but are these claims justified? If we look at what is happening today, I doubt it. For sure AI (the capability of a machine to imitate human behaviour), machine learning (computers learning and improving without explicit programming) and automation (the replacement or total elimination of manual tasks) will play a part in re-shaping the future workforce, but will the outcome be as bleak as predicted? The very large data sets generated by online shopping are utilised to drive better personalisation and customer experience through ad placement, search, product recommendations and placement, fraud management and translation.