In this month's column, I'm going to bring you on an AI-inspired tour of the future of retail and eye care. Now we often talk about how artificial intelligence and augmented medical intelligence will change clinical care delivery. However, maybe the greatest initial impact will be on the retail side of eye care. I believe that in the not-so-distant future, not only will AI enhance the personalization of retail eye wear sales.
We'll also dramatically increase purchase and efficiency and completely transform the entire customer experience across all parts of the industry. Let me take you on a little tour. Now, imagine a completely personalized shopping experience where AI-driven recommendation engines, like those already being used by Amazon and Netflix, will suggest products based on our previous purchase experiences, or maybe even our, what I call, our dream searches. For example, if I'm a golfer and I recently purchased a new new putter, maybe my AI-driven personal health shopper, my Ph.S, will recommend the newest and polarized eye wear to help me read the green better in flat light.
My Ph.S. will educate me about the benefits of certain color lenses. It will then show me examples of the proposed eye wear complete with a heads-up display, a rangefinder, and a complete history of how the ball breaks based on where that ball currently lies. Then, I would know exactly how far I have to put, as well as the slope of the green, at a certain distance, on a certain course, at a certain dew point.
Now, if I take that one step further, where my Ph.S. will search for what retails around the world are offering the best value for such a personalized and unique product that conforms with my individual taste, I think I might just be sold. Now, the same Ph.S. will act as a virtual stylist and select products based on my individual taste.
Now, I believe that we'll soon enter a world where optical retailers are not competing with the practice down the street, but on competitors on the global market. A world where pricing will be completely dynamic based on the needs of the consumers searching for a given product worldwide at any given time. Now, think about a shopping experience where my Ph.S. provides 24.7 support.
In any language that answered my questions, and guide me through the entire purchasing process, all with simple voice commands, similar to me asking Lexa to queue up my favorite song list. Within a few years, we might be able to see exactly how we look in these purchases with three of the virtual heads-up display in my current eyewear. How will this change how customers engage with retailers? How might it change how our industry works?
I also believe we'll see AI used to create an automated checkout experience. I can't even remember the last time that I went to a live person to check out of the grocery store. Have you been at the self-service Kiosks at the airport? Why would I go see another human?
Everything I've covered so far is a consumer facing side of AI. However, subtly working behind the scenes is AI embedded business tools that will proactively interact with our consumers. AI is already being used by companies such as Walmart to improve operational efficiency by predicting demand, optimizing stock levels, and reducing overstock situations. Many retailers around the world are also exploring this technology.
How long will it be before these technologies are present on a smaller scale? Like in my optical? I don't think it will be long. The eye care industry is actively looking for ways to optimize their supply chain to improve logistics, minimize delivery times, and reduce costs by analyzing and predicting supply chain bottlenecks.
The ZAI technology already exists for companies such as FedEx and UPS. Do we really think that vision care behemoths, such as exotic and marchon, are not far behind? Now they also will have to adopt or adapt, or simply they will get bumped out of their own markets by larger and more sophisticated wholesalers who are better equipped and managed inventory of smaller vendors. Amazon has done this in every industry on the planet.
Is the eye care world next? Possibly so. Now imagine how AI might impact decision making from an industry standpoint. Companies that adopt AI will have data where they can predict customer behavior and then customize the market strategies in a way never before possible to stay one step ahead of their customers needs and preferences.
This allows them to target the right customer with the right content at the right price in real time across any channel the customers currently using. Now imagine if as a retailer you had insights into trends months before your competitors, AI embedded business operational tools will be able to provide huge, analyze huge data sets of what's selling, where it's selling, what the consumer demographic is that's moving the needle in that specific area. Now think about what kind of competitive advantage that that would be. AI will also allow for dynamic pricing where prices can be adjusted in real time based on demand, competition and other factors that maximize our profitability.
I'm pretty sure the airlines might already be doing that since it seems like every time I try to book a flight, leave the site and come back, the fairs jump $50. Okay so maybe these scenarios seem a little far off. But everything I mentioned already exists in other industries and candidly the first two I care companies that figure this out will have a significant competitive advantage. Simply put, retail's that embrace AI will simply replace those that don't.
Sounds similar to our comment that AI won't replace doctors, but doctors who use AI will replace those who choose not to. Now granted, third challenges such as data privacy concerns, high implementation costs and adoption challenges, but this AI integrated retail world is already here. By making shopping smarter, faster and more enjoyable, AI has the potential to significantly reshape the retail landscape, benefiting both consumers and businesses alike. Now that sounds like a win-win proposition to me.
So thank you for your time today and stay tuned. Next month we're going to cover how AI is going to affect inventory management. Have a great week.