Automating Need Processes with RPA

An outline of the use of RPA in Contact centers.   A natural place because the customer establishes themselves as needing help.    But its use goes far beyond, to most any process.  Also clearly useful in an attentive assistant system, once its established the customer needs something.  See previous piece on Google moving in this direction.   Inserting need solution within need statement.

How is Robotic Process Automation in Contact Centers improving Customer Experience and Driving Profitability?   By Mitul Makadia - in CustomerThink

With the emergence and advent of RPA, enterprises are starting to see major growth in terms of savings and scaling of overall operations, however, when it comes to contact centers or call centers, robotic process automation offers invaluable advantages by providing solutions to challenges based around service, process & technology.

Customer satisfaction is a huge KPI for any business and call centers play a key role in shaping the success of that KPI. CSRs face immense demand to grow overall revenue by upselling & cross-selling, delivering fast, personalized and effective service – all while meeting high first call resolution and low average handling time goals. Yet, they happen to work with technology that slows them down and requires them to work with a myriad of slow & complicated applications while they speak with customers.

Although Business Process Management plays its part, the high levels of repetitive tasks within contact centers can only be circumvented through call center automation for better employee efficiency, customer satisfaction, and profitability.

Take a look at how Robotic Process Automation in Contact Centers is improving customer engagement and streamlining processes –  .... "

Google Focusing Context of Need Curation with Assistants

Is everything in Google turning into an ad-oriented assistant?    Into product curation?   Yes,  see how their fundamental service, search, has already turned that way.  I ask for help,  it gives me good results and then sets my information context to need what I searched for.   Having an assistant App, or an assistant device listening for my requested needs, is just another way to focus and set context for product curation.  Its always listening to get and set the context of our needs.

The massive Google shift you probably haven't noticed
 Android Intelligence   By JR Raphael, Contributing Editor, Computerworld 

Google is quietly repositioning the very foundation of its business — and if you aren't watching closely, this monumental move might be easy to miss.

The trend, in short, revolves around getting down to business — specifically, the business of making money off of you and me and everyone else who uses Google services. For a while now, y'see, Google has been focusing on new areas that don't directly fit in with the company's long-standing main business model. Google, as we all know, makes its money primarily from selling and showing ads that are custom-tailored to your interests at any given moment. But many of Google's newer services have remained mostly ad-free since their starts.

Sure, these services still collect data about us, which can then be used to better target ads in traditional web search and other such places — but more and more, we tech-loving Homo sapiens aren't using traditional web search to get all of our information, especially when we're on mobile devices or other modern-tech gizmos. In the longer-term future, if Google wants to keep its cash cow mooing, it's gotta find a way to replicate its ad system in other areas and keep its business model relevant to our evolving tech habits.  .... 

The bigger Assistant ad picture

The injection of ads directly into Assistant feels like a culminating step in a process we've been watching unfold for years. It's become increasingly clear over time that Assistant is turning into the central focus for almost everything Google does — and for good reason: As we all spend less time surfing the open web and more time using apps and connected devices, the future of the online ad industry is being threatened by irrelevance. The future, as the thinking goes, isn't in traditional box-on-a-page web search but rather in interacting with all the stuff around us. And if Google Assistant is the genie inside all that stuff, at the end of the day, we're all still Google customers. .... " 

Walmart Battles Amazon with Jetblack

Mentioned previously here, back to product selection curation.  Would be a good place to model the process of consumer interaction with needs.  The journey involved could produce places for useful interaction.   A Concierge model?  Note also the use of human agents who are training an AI.

Walmart Builds a Secret Weapon to Battle Amazon for Retail's Future 
In The Wall Street Journal   By Sarah Nassauer

Last summer, Walmart launched Jetblack, a personal-shopping company targeted at mothers and designed to compete with Amazon. Users pay $600 a year to order anything by text message except for fresh food. The orders go to Jetblack headquarters where dozens of agents field the requests. Then, couriers fetch the items and bring them back to a delivery hub, where they are packaged and hand delivered, usually the same day. Walmart is using Jetblack's human agents to train an artificial intelligence system that could someday power an automated personal-shopping service. In addition, Jetblack's software is learning to make agents more efficient, suggesting language to use for text interaction. Over time, the company aims to use these interactions to train the computer algorithms to learn to respond to requests with human-like nuance but with machine efficiency. .... "

Wal-Mart Private Label Tablet?

Quite an interesting development.    How might Wal-Mart use this kind of channel to drive online purchases?  Inexpensive position could drive broader uses.   Perhaps adding some shopping assistant to aid the shopper, curating purchasing?

Will Walmart’s new tablet burn into Amazon Fire’s market share?  by George Anderson in Retailwire, with further expert comments.

Tablet sales may have slowed down in recent years, but Walmart has apparently identified an opportunity within the category that it can leverage to drive sales. The retailer, Bloomberg reports, plans to roll out an inexpensive, child-friendly Android tablet under its ONN private label.

Apple, the undisputed leader in the category, appears least likely to feel an impact from Walmart’s new entry since its iPad fills the upper, premium end of the market. Amazon.com’s line of Fire tablets, which include models marketed with colorful, kid-proof cases, appears a more likely target. The Fire line, which also runs on Android, tends to be priced at the lower end of the tablet market. ... "

Wal-Mart Will Recommend by Product Attribute

Note the inclusion of natural language to enable online reviews.   And multi-dimensional attributes.   Will embrace this kind of advanced interaction?

Will attribute-based product recommendations be a game changer for Walmart?   by Tom Ryan in Retailwire

Walmart last week acquired Aspectiva, an Israeli-based startup that uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to enable online reviews to be sorted by product attributes.

While most online sites rank products on simple one to five-star ratings by consumers, Aspectiva’s platform promises to bring “multi-dimensional” ratings so browsers can focus on the attributes they find most important.

For example, an online review of diapers may show ratings based on attributes such as “softest”, “absorbency”, “sensitive skin”, “wellness indicator” or “overall quality”. A wireless soundbar for a television may show ratings based on factors such as “sound”, “quality”, “bass”, “remote capabilities”, “Bluetooth capabilities” and “overall features”.  ...  '

Bots Changing the Way we Buy

Thoughts on bots and buying.    Curation comes up.  It also works with things as 'simple' as search.    You freely initiated it, but it also has curation in mind.

How Will AI Bots Change the Way We Buy Consumer Products? I Shop, You Buy? By Kristina Rogers in Consumergoods

Today I can go and buy toothpaste or go and shop for some. Whichever way I describe it, the activity is the same. Maybe the only difference would be whether I get my toothpaste online or in the “real world.” But in the near future, I think the words buying and shopping will begin to describe very different activities.

‘Buying’ won’t take up much of our time or attention. Today, I can tell a device on my kitchen counter to add toothpaste to my virtual shopping list. How long will it be until I trust artificial intelligence (AI) to curate a selection of product choices for me? I’d be happy for it to buy a lot of the mundane products that I don’t really want to think about. Which would likely include most of the consumer goods I use.

My AI platform of choice would become an entry point to a broader ecosystem of products, services, transactions, payment and fulfillment. It would know me well enough to evaluate what products or services I need and when. It won’t just find me the best deal on price; it will source brands and suppliers that reflect my values.

This kind of AI activity can sound a little intrusive to some people. To be sure, besides my children directing Siri to do all sorts of things, I'm personally not yet there. Somehow, I don't have time to get organized with a bot despite its promise to save me time! But 47% of consumers already say they are open to the idea of buying items through a chatbot. And almost half of U.S. consumers say they are willing to share personal information if it gets them a better deal, according to HubSpot Research. ... " 

E-Commerce Direct Delivery by 'Kroger Ship' Launched

Another channel opens by a major player.   Was alerted to this today.      I see its in the local market, will be giving it a try to see how the curation works.  In our market they are offering 15% off and  free shipment for your first order.

Kroger Gets Into Online Grocery Shopping Act in ECommerceTimes   By Richard Adhikari 

Supermarket uber-chain The Kroger Co. on Wednesday launched Kroger Ship, a direct-to-consumer e-commerce platform. Ship debuted in four markets: Cincinnati; Houston; Louisville, Kentucky; and Nashville, Tennessee.

The service will be rolled out to additional markets over the next few months.

During the first phase of Kroger Ship, customers will be able to shop from a curated selection of 4,500 Our Brands products, which are not available elsewhere online, and more than 50,000 center-aisle groceries and household essentials that matter the most, as rated by 84.51°, a Kroger subsidiary.

Kroger Ship will carry staples, customer favorites, and bulk and additional sizes. It will focus on Our Brands, local and international food and flavors, specialty items, and health and wellness products.

"I think it's interesting -- and important -- that Kroger's featuring its private label in the assortment," said Nikki Baird, VP of retail innovation at Aptos.

"That has proven to be a strong strategy for Amazon," she told the E-Commerce Times.

The Ship service offers competitive e-commerce pricing, Kroger said.

Still, pricing is not the real issue, suggested Ray Wang, principal analyst at Constellation Research. The products "have to be good enough to purchase online instead of going to the store."

That's hard to do with produce unless there's uniform quality in the supply chain, he told the E-Commerce Times. "For other goods, they'd better be better than Amazon, which is the gold standard."

Kroger Ship "complements and joins our 2,800 grocery stores, 1,250 curbside pickup locations, and delivery service from 1,200 locations," noted Yael Cosset, Kroger's chief digital officer.

Ship "is our next step in creating a seamless experience that allows our customers to shop when and how they want," he said. "Our new service is just one more way we are redefining the customer experience as part of Restock Kroger, bringing more convenience and options to shoppers across America." ... "

See also in Fortune.  And https://ship.kroger.com/ 

Shopping Curation by Assistant

So what is shopping curation?    It gives the choice of product or brands or services in the hands of a smart device.   For first purchase or replenishment.   By suggestion, friendly influence or by direct substitution.    As our assistants get increasingly human, friendly and 'smart',  we may start to trust them implicitly.  But do they have our best needs in mind?   Or is it just a more heavy-handed kind of advertising?  Just how transparent is the reason for the suggestion?  Have seen it already in the alteration of shopping lists, and the direct substitution of 'high ranking' projects for more generic requests. 

Is AI-driven shopping curation a good thing?  in Retailwire.  With expert commentary.
by Guest contributor    MarketingCharts staff

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of articles from MarketingCharts, which provides up-to-the-minute data and research to marketers. ... 

A survey of tech-savvy consumers showed that more were confident that AI would narrow (56 percent) rather than expand their options (44 percent).

Interestingly, among those who felt that AI would narrow their options, a slight majority thought that it would limit them from seeing all of the options they would normally explore. Conversely, slightly fewer felt that AI would narrow their options, but in a good way.

The survey from The Integer Group of almost 3,700 U.S. consumers, of whom 3,615 described AI in positive terms, explored AI perceptions.

The findings bring to mind research from L2, which found that Alexa prioritizes Amazon’s Choice products over top-ranked items in conventional search. In presenting just a couple of options for an item, Alexa essentially makes a lot of decisions for the shopper, and the factors used in that curation may not rest simply on high-ranking products.

Nonetheless, there’s more to AI than just Alexa. Overall, 61 percent of respondents in the Integer Group survey felt that AI curation would benefit them either by expanding their exploration and helping them find new things (37 percent) or by narrowing their options in a good way (24 percent). .... "