The retail industry is suffering from the decline of physical stores, and is turning to artificial intelligence in order to breathe new life into the shopping experience, suggests latest research from Omdia. The analyst firm predicts that spending on AI software by retail organizations will reach $9.8 billion per year by 2025, up from just $1.3 billion in 2019. Omdia has identified a total of 24 use cases for AI software in retail, and analyzed the 11 that are expected to account for 91 percent of spending in the next five years; it predicts that this particular niche of the AI market will be led by supply chain and inventory management software, with a 15 percent market share. This will be followed by AI-based applications in image recognition and visual search (13 percent), virtual digital assistants fine-tuned for the needs of eCommerce (12 percent), video surveillance analytics (12 percent), and tools that enable personalized customer journeys (10 percent). "AI technologies have begun to move from research lab projects to the engines that drive genuine business solutions. These technologies are disrupting a variety of industries, from healthcare and telecommunications to financial services and retail, primarily by bringing scale and efficiency to bear in solving business problems," said Mark Beccue, principal analyst at Omdia.