Scenario and prospects of Artificial Intelligence in retail & consumer goods sectors

Before talking about prospects for AI in the retail and CG sector, let's first look at some macro trends triggered by Covid-19, that point at a tectonic shift in the contours and operating model of this industry. Statista predicts that global e-commerce sales is expected to touch $6.5 trillion by 2023 which is staggering especially when the first documented online sale happened just 25 years ago in 1994. Not just pre-Covid online buyers increasing their online buy by 45% as per a recent BCG study, the same report also suggests that a staggering 20 % of buyers are first time online buyers. Myntra sees a 86% increase in customers from Tier2 and Tier3 cities and as per Unicommerce data, Tier3 cities clocked a 53% increase in online buying. Unicommerce further predicts that the unique number of online shoppers annually in tier-II and beyond cities to go up to 170 million over the next three years from the current 50 million.