What: Coresight’s insights on ChatGPT and how to use it in retail.

Why it is important: The report suggests that everything needs to be built: several retailers are testing the tool and looking at where it could lead them, and Coresight advises others to see ChatGPT and its peers as a training field for now, but which needs to be explored urgently.

Coresight’s analysis shows that :

•    ChatGPT facilitates enhanced, automated content generation, with benefits for retail companies including increased productivity, improved personalization and marketing strategy testing and refinement. Many major brands and retailers—such as Coca-Cola, Carrefour, CVS and Kroger—are experimenting with ChatGPT to automate content generation, also enabling them to minimize labor and costs related to producing content.

•    Tech giants such as Alibaba, Baidu, Google, IBM and JD.com are launching ChatGPT alternatives to compete in the generative AI space. Brands should evaluate all options to identify which solution best suits their needs.

•    Platform vendors Google, Microsoft and Salesforce have taken an early lead in adding generative AI capabilities throughout their offerings to provide clients with improved customer service and enable brands and retailers to more easily integrate their enterprise systems, boosting business efficiency and productivity.

•    With its introduction making a splash, generative AI technology is in its early stages and continues to evolve rapidly, with the category benefiting from continuing healthy investment in AI generally

•    Brands and retailers should experiment with generative AI technology, but they must be cautious of the risks. There have been cases of inaccurate or misleading results, and several vendors are including a “human in the loop” to supervise and improve the output of generative AI models.

For Coresight, generative AI has huge growth potential in retail, as indicated by the rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and alternative platforms that can help brands, retailers and solution providers offer enhanced customer service and improve productivity. However, the technology requires human supervision at this early stage, rather than serving as a replacement for humans. They encourage business leaders to experiment with generative AI and explore its applications to realize business benefits while remaining aware of the risks of sharing their data. As the technology evolves, they expect to see even more sophisticated large language models and broader adoption across various industries.

ChatGPT and Generative AI: Five things retailers should know