Owning Your Data Assets and the Art of Noodling Around: New Technologies Mean New Priorities
Navigating the flood of new technology rushing into retail isn’t for the faint of heart. As promising as the possibilities are, deciding where to go first and how far will be a constant conundrum for retailers and brands.
Carol’s guest, Chris Corbin, is VP and BI and Analytics Practice Leader for Sophelle, a boutique consulting firm that navigates the complexities of technology selection, implementation, and optimization for retailers and brands. Prior to Sophelle, Chris led technology and data transformations for diverse retail companies including J. Jill, Alex and Ani, and Christmas Tree Shops. Chris brings common-sense takes on technology that demystify AI, machine learning, data governance, and other complex topics. He’s an endlessly curious and passionate advocate for leveraging technology to make us better versions of ourselves.
Picking up from their NRF 2024 chat during KWI’s Retail Re-Stored series, Carol and Chris break down the options and actions.
Episode highlights:
Unconventional intelligence: From kid wrangling to personal shopping, novel ways to apply AI in everyday life.
From possession to utilization: Making the critical distinction between merely having data and being truly data-driven.
Data precision vs. practicality: When actionable insights matter more than exhaustive accuracy.
The reality of reasoning: Why cataclysmic warnings surrounding AI are likely overblown (for now).
Episode information:
KEY EXCERPTS
What does Google give us? Google gives us a bunch of links that may or may not contain an answer. Generative AI gives me an answer.
If I have to do a task, my first question is, ‘how can AI help me do this task?’ And notice I didn't say, ‘How can AI do this task for me?’
Companies that are data driven are constantly realizing that there's an almost endless amount of data out there that could describe their business. And all that data has untapped potential.
Data is all about adding value. It's an asset that has value in and of itself and can generate additional value. And if you're not treating it as such, you're leaving a lot on the table.
10 years, if you fell a little bit behind the curve with your data capabilities, you could still kind of swim and get by. My fear is if you fall too far behind this AI curve, you might sink. I really would encourage people not to treat this as the next passing phase, but to really understand what it is and how it can help you.
