SAP Emarsys revealed Wednesday that it has begun piloting a new tool called AI Product Finder.
The software provider said it was responding to interest both from clients and consumers.
Emarsys data showed that 64 percent of shoppers believe artificial intelligence has improved their experiences with retail; that figure has risen by 13 percentage points since 2023. Consequently, six in 10 consumers also indicated that they would like to see retailers up their integration of AI.
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Sara Richter, SAP Emarsys’ chief marketing officer, said consumers’ surge in interest could be attributable to their—sometimes limited—understanding of how AI works.
“[Consumers] understand it’s faster; they understand it uses more data. And I think we have a culture—globally, really—that we’ve created that says those two things mean giving you more. It will give me more, it will give me faster, it will give me better,” Richter said.
Consumers aren’t the only ones feeling the effects of AI. Nearly three-quarters of marketers said they have increased their AI investment in 2024, and nearly eight in ten of those marketers said AI has contributed to stronger consumer engagement.
Richter said launching the pilot for this product felt like a natural next step for the business, which has spent more than 10 years deploying AI tools for its clients.
“This pilot is the next stage in that evolution of how do we start to use gen AI to supercharge [the] ability to personalize, to put that right product [in front of the consumer], to give the marketer a way to access their data so much more quickly, to actually have it [focus on] product recommendations. They’re really able to say, ‘What is the product that the customer is actually going to be interested in right now?’” Richter told Sourcing Journal.
The tool uses data, as supplied by the client, to help predict what customers in certain subsets might have interest in purchasing. For instance, if an apparel retailer wants to understand what might play well among Los Angeles-based customers who have only purchased in stores previously, the tool can help generate results for that particular customer persona. From there, the marketer can effectively craft communications to those consumers.
Richter said a brand or retailer can input as much—or as little—data about its customers as it feels necessary.
But brands need to ensure they have meaningful data for the results to prove valuable to the business. Richter said educating consumers on how their data improves their experiences remains important.
“Giving up your data is a value exchange. If I’m going to tell you something that is personal about me…you need to give me something back,” she told Sourcing Journal. “It needs to mimic the experience [the consumer] had at the corner store, when they used to walk in the door on a Saturday afternoon and the shopkeeper would say, ‘So glad you’re back, because this new dress came in and I put one away in your size because I really think you’re going to want it.’ That’s the value exchange you’re trying to mimic.”
While the tool has the power to give ideas for one-to-one messaging targeted at a singular consumer, Richter said she expects clients to use it for segmented audiences to scale effectively.
“I think the trick is to get as personalized with that as you can and understand who to whom you are selling,” Richter said. “Are you understanding and personalizing across channels? Do you truly have that single-customer view, or are you operating what I would call kind of omnichannel dark ages of [thinking] you are one customer when you come to my website and a different customer when you come to me in store and a different customer when you operate…via mobile channels.”
SAP Emarsys expects to launch the client-facing system after completing the pilot later this year.
