Developing a Digital AI Roadmap for Retail
Bangalore Seetharam, Sudhindra (2020)
2020
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060416974
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020060416974
Tiivistelmä
This thesis focuses on deriving key business priorities for small and medium-sized retail organizations by formulating a digital AI roadmap that can serve as a starting point to apply AI in their business to stay abreast with the competition. The study focuses on analyzing a group of retailers that still have more than 90% of the sales through traditional brick and mortar stores. As the transformation of the retail industry to digital progresses, the study aimed to help these retail organizations to adopt early.
The study was performed using an Applied action research and using qualitative research methods via interactions with key business stakeholders, service consultants in IT, and principal consultants of global IT service companies. The current state analysis indicated what technologies the selected retail organizations use, and discussed how they meet the objective of using technology enablers.
In the theoretical formwork, the study looked into the digital transformation performed by big leaders such as Amazon, Alibaba that are leading the way in adopting digital and AI. By exploring the theoretical sources and best practice, the study concludes that AI today is more of a promise and hence organizations need to prioritize based on their business needs. Early adoption will help in evolving the business strategy in demanding times. When an organization need to improve its process, a proven six sigma methodology can be applied. Similarly, when there has been newer technologies or challenges in a domain, relying on a team to delve into the situation and find different ways to overcome has proven bringing good results.
As the outcome, the study recommends initiating a “value generation team” as there is a wide variety of newer technologies to be explored and utilized. The study also fills the current gaps of business use cases. With a combination of different use cases along with industry best practices, the outcome of this thesis proposes a digital AI roadmap that can help organizations to apply AI. Use case prioritization models can be adopted by any organization to achieve business results.
The study was performed using an Applied action research and using qualitative research methods via interactions with key business stakeholders, service consultants in IT, and principal consultants of global IT service companies. The current state analysis indicated what technologies the selected retail organizations use, and discussed how they meet the objective of using technology enablers.
In the theoretical formwork, the study looked into the digital transformation performed by big leaders such as Amazon, Alibaba that are leading the way in adopting digital and AI. By exploring the theoretical sources and best practice, the study concludes that AI today is more of a promise and hence organizations need to prioritize based on their business needs. Early adoption will help in evolving the business strategy in demanding times. When an organization need to improve its process, a proven six sigma methodology can be applied. Similarly, when there has been newer technologies or challenges in a domain, relying on a team to delve into the situation and find different ways to overcome has proven bringing good results.
As the outcome, the study recommends initiating a “value generation team” as there is a wide variety of newer technologies to be explored and utilized. The study also fills the current gaps of business use cases. With a combination of different use cases along with industry best practices, the outcome of this thesis proposes a digital AI roadmap that can help organizations to apply AI. Use case prioritization models can be adopted by any organization to achieve business results.