Retailers peer into the future of marketing with artificial intelligence

Businesses are now using artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the future, foreseeing potential product failures and public relations controversies before they happen or escalate. Of the sectors taking advantage of AI, retail ventures, including traditional bricks-and-mortar stores, are using the rapidly advancing technology to adapt to the 21st century and stay ahead of the disruption that has spurred some observers to paint a gloomy picture of the industry's future. "There is no retail apocalypse; the end of everything isn't happening," said David Ian Gray, principal and founder of the retail-focused consulting firm DIG360. "But there is this huge, cataclysmic kind of change. The ecosystem of retail is in rapid flux right now."