How Retailers Use Artificial Intelligence to Know What You Want to Buy Before You Do

"An AI system needs data in order to become smart. And the more data it has, the smarter it gets," says Gaylene Meyer, Vice President Global Marketing & Communications at RFID company Impinj (PI), whose products allow retailers to track trillions of items of inventory in real time and respond quickly to changes in demand. "When you can see everything moving through a system, you gain a new view of the system as a whole. So you can find the pain points and eliminate them." That's crucial, as inconvenience is the enemy of sales; the easier the transaction, the more likely people are to complete it.