Headlines blast that generative AI can revolutionize the retail industry. Really? Well, if I can overcome my cynical view that this awesome technology breakthrough, if not regulated, will ultimately doom the human species, I suppose I could believe it might be that positively powerful for retailers. Runaway AI My doomsday fear seems to be serious considering the appearance of Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT before a Senate Subcommittee last week. In no uncertain terms, he requested that AI regulations be established as guardrails to prevent …
Technology
Proto Holograms Are Leapfrogging to the Future
I have seen the near future and it is speeding toward us at warp speed. Case in point: When I worked at Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve, we began by interviewing a radical cross-section of amazing thinkers from academia, business, and entertainment, you name it. We’d ask them to envision the world of their practice 20 years hence. Then we would aggregate those snapshots to create a comprehensive futurescape. From that vision, we’d work backward -- ‘back casting’ was the art term Faith coined for the process – to ensure our clients had a detailed …
Retail Tech Opens a New Chapter
As the vernal equinox flips the calendar to Spring, festivals and innovation summits have emerged from hibernation. At the South by Southwest festival in Austin Texas, retail was downgraded from previous headliner presentations to a minor topic, but it did reinforce the mega-themes of climate change and climate-related technologies. To its credit, BoF grabbed the retail-tech baton that SXSW fumbled. The BoF Professional Fashion Tech Summit, held at the New York Times Center in Manhattan, avoided any mention of sustainability, instead exploring …
TikTok Retail Marketing at Risk
Digital marketers in the retail industry have been thrown into a state of flux in recent days with news emerging that regulators in Congress and the Biden Administration are edging closer to a ban or forced sale of the popular social media platform TikTok. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said last weekend that lawmakers "will be moving forward" with legislation to address the heightened national security concerns surrounding the app after the social media giant’s CEO faced hours grilling before a congressional panel last week. The move …
What Mark Twain Has to Say About the Metaverse
Remember Mark Twain’s observation about the weather? Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it. Brand growth in the metaverse is quite like that. Yes, just like weather, Web3 seems conceptually important, but chaotic and well beyond our control. However, unlike the weather, we can do something about tomorrow’s marketing climate. Today. Are You Ready? As in any iteration of Jeopardy, let’s state the issue in the form of a question: Are we really ready to shrug and say scores of smart sportswear, fashion, beauty, …
Shoptalk 2023 Is Also the Industry’s Tech Festival
Shoptalk is well known in the retail industry as an exciting, forward-thinking gathering infused with tech innovations for retailers and brands. How do they stay on top of the trends and curate the most interesting tech solutions? We asked Joe Laszlo, Vice President of Content at Shoptalk, to share how he and his team scoured the tech industry to select the most dynamic, relevant solution providers for this year’s event. Solutions for the Present Moment Laszlo says that the Technology Spotlight sessions at Shoptalk present the many …
After the Crash, NFTs Are Repurposed for Retail
NFTs have sprinted through the hype cycle, from frenzied enthusiasm to disillusionment in less than 24 months. Signals are hinting that they may have reached the ultimate stage of the cycle: productivity. The crypto winter chilled a large cohort of investors previously emboldened by a steady upward march in digital asset valuations. Bored Apes, secured by FTX-stored tokens sailed from their virtual yacht club to oblivion, as the celebrity-backed craze ran aground while the speculative NFT market plunged by 97 percent between January and …
The Electric Slide
Consider this: There are about to be 1.3 million opportunities that have never existed before for retailers, restaurants, and service providers. Those that jump on it first will reap the benefits. All you have to do is plug in. The transition of the American vehicle market from internal combustion engine (ICE) power to electric (EV) is happening faster, more furiously and at more price levels than anyone could have forecasted, even as recently as a year or two ago. In 2020, EVs represented barely two percent of the American market. They …