AI: Why artificial intelligence could offer retailers the ul
Source: Madhu Murgia
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt. Photo: Robert Pearce
Google Now is competing against Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana and a plethora of other digital assistants.
In a short ad film released in China this week, Chinese celebrity Angelababy was transported into an animation where her life was made wonderfully easy by a newly- launched service: an intelligent virtual assistant called Duer. It can book her into a hotel that allows pets (because it knows she has a cat), it can order her favourite latte from Starbucks, and it can find and buy her discounted tickets at her local cinema. Duer is the latest addition to the roster of search, e-commerce and delivery services provided by Chinese technology giant Baidu - China's Google. And it's just entered a fierce race.
The five biggest technology companies in the Western world are each competing to create their own virtual assistants; your personal guides to help navigate the digital world. They are all "artificially intelligent", which means they understand what you're asking for, and learn your preferences, almost like a human assistant. Facebook recently announced a concierge service called "M" through its Messenger app, and most people have already played with Apple's Siri (which got a big upgrade last week for the new Apple TV). Add to that Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana and Amazon, which has the Echo - a voice-activated living-room device that can control the ambience of your home - and the stage is set for a showdown.
The winner is playing for high stakes - they get to be the platform through which you conduct your entire digital life. You will be asking your Siri or Duer or Cortana to order food, book flights, make restaurant bookings, call a cab, have your car repaired, call Ryanair customer service and buy everything. It's the super-charged, super-lucrative Search 2.0.
Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt.
So what's in it for the companies? Firstly, deeper understanding of those who use their services (and exactly what they need) means the virtual assistants are the ultimate personal profiling tool. Having this ultra-detailed dataset about your intimate needs, combined with knowledge of the routes you travel, your search history and the content of your emails and texts, means better ad targeting, the primary revenue model for these companies.
Advertisement
The other major driver is e-commerce. Artificial intelligence may seem like the domain of geeks and scientists, but increasingly it is intertwined with our everyday lives. According to technology research firm Tractica, the artificial intelligence market is set to reach $US11.1bn by 2024.
"There's an element of AI in everything we do," says Behshad Behzadi, principal engineer of Google Now. "It's just a way to interpret correctly either what the user is saying right now, or what they might need in the future."
The impact of a machine that understands you and learns from your habits will stretch beyond the ability to speak a question into your smartphone and get an answer. An artificially intelligent assistant could make everyday decisions far easier, or even take them over completely.
Take Baidu's Duer. The AI assistant will actually complete tasks on your behalf, not just tell you how. You can ask Duer to order dinner from your favourite restaurant, and it will know you like spicy food (maybe you ordered a curry or Sichuan cuisine last time). Once you've picked something from its offered suggestions, it will be delivered by Baidu's network of delivery men on scooters. You can use Duer to book online movie tickets, make an appointment at a spa or gym and even book pet grooming services. "We're very, very different from Siri or Cortana, because our assistant is services-oriented," says Baidu's Kaiser Kuo. The business model is commission-based - Baidu takes a cut of anything booked through Duer. Although it currently offers subsidised deals, the plan is to build up a big enough user base to make it a major revenue driver.
In a parallel move, Facebook is testing its secretary, called M, within its Messenger app. Apparently, it can purchase items, get gifts delivered, book restaurants, make travel arrangements and is powered by a combination of AI and real-life people.
The move towards e-commerce is clear for Google and Microsoft, too. Google recently launched a pilot of its fresh-food delivery service in the US. Google chairman Eric Schmidt has said: "Many people think our main competition is Bing or Yahoo!. But, really, our biggest search competitor is Amazon. People don't think of Amazon as search, but if you are looking for something to buy, you are more often than not looking for it on Amazon." The plan? To make it easier for people to buy things via Google.
Artificially intelligent systems can recognise and remember speech. Two years ago Google Now would misinterpret around 25 per cent of words spoken, but today it only misses 8 per cent. Duer keeps "every recorded utterance and the text that corresponds to it", according to Kuo. That feeds back to the cloud to train Duer.
What this means in practice is that services will become proactive: your virtual assistant learns more about you and it will start to tell you what you need, without you having to ask.
Apple is already emphasising this with its new iOS 9 update. One of the major features is called Proactive. So, for example, if you often listen to music in the morning, your iPhone will offer up the Music app on the lock screen when you plug in your headphones. Or it may automatically bring up the Weather app when you first unlock it in the morning, if that's a regular habit.
Eventually, the virtual assistant that wins - and the company behind it - will know you better than you know yourself, so you can't live life without it. That's the ultimate prize.
| }
|