Amazon ranked UK’s #1 digital innovator due to A.I

London - Artificial Intelligence (A.I) is one of the leading technologies powering innovation in retail, with online giant Amazon leading the way with its smart-speaker personal assistant Amazon Echo. Innovations surrounding artificial intelligence in customer communication and supply chain has been listed among the top 50 retail technology initiatives in the latest Retail Insider’s Digital Retail Innovations Report for 2017.

Artificial Intelligence driving innovations in retail and fashion

For the second year in a row, Amazon was named the UK’s number one digital innovator, as it took all three of its top spots, with Amazon Echo topping the ranking thanks to its new and improves user-friendly features. The voice-driven personal assistant, also known as Alexa, is able to answer questions, read the news, place orders, play music, send messages or place calls using voice recognition. Amazon Echo also offers a wide array of new capabilities such as Echo Look, which uses a video camera to take photos and videos of users outfit selection of the day and offer feedback on outfit choices.

Other brands listed in the report and applauded for their AI initiatives included Shop Direct’s conversational technology, developed in collaboration with IBM Watson and Panasonic’s robotic check outs. “The various AI initiatives show how retailers are working hard to evolve customer journey,” said Guy Chiswick, Managing Director of Webloyalty, Northern Europe. “They are thinking outside the box and coming up with new ways to answer customer demand for convenience and immediacy, as well as looking for solutions to improve every step of the supply chain.”

The fashion sector, in particular, was also highlighted in the report by one of the most innovator sectors, as 16 of the innovations in the year’s report were being driven fashion retailers. Net-a-Porter, for example, was listed at number 12 for its partnership with WhatsApp with sees the luxury online retailer working with the app to offer customers the opportunity to make a purchase directly through the app. Other fashion retailers ranked in the report’s top 50 UK and Ireland innovations include luxury retailer Farfetch and its ’Store of the Future’, ranked at number 14, Nike’s Smartpixels, ranked at 25 and Made.com Hullabalook at 31.

“Once again, this report showcases how the retail industry is evolving and utilising digital innovation to do so,” added Glynn Davis, Editor of Retail Insider. “Technology is progressing day by day, so it’s always a hard job to narrow our list down to just 50 In a year that’s been full to the brim with cutting-edge innovation, it’s a real credit to all the retailers listed to have been honoured as ‘innovators’ by some of the industry’s leading experts.”

Photo: Amazon