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A new index measuring how thoroughly retailers have embedded AI into their operations placed Amazon, Walmart, and Stitch Fix at the top of the list.
The 2024 Retail AI Index is a project of Lily AI, a platform that specializes in providing AI solutions to retailers, and is based on an analysis of public first-party, and third-party data sources covering a range of benchmarks, from the number of AI-related job postings to press coverage of AI-focused initiatives.
“AI is becoming table stakes for retailers who want to stay competitive,” Lily AI CEO Purva Gupta said in a statement. “Not surprisingly, the biggest of the bigs—Amazon and Walmart—have the resources to invest in AI extensively.”
Here’s the full top 10 list from the index:
- Amazon
- Walmart
- Stitch Fix
- eBay
- Wayfair
- Sam’s Club
- Target
- The Home Depot
- Macy’s
- Nike
A number of these companies have recently touted their investments in AI, especially around customer service, and Amazon is no exception. In its Q2 earnings call last week, CEO Andy Jassy told shareholders that “we remain very bullish on the medium- to long-term impact of AI in every business we know and can imagine.”
He said that while “the progress may not be one straight line for companies,” Amazon sees “so much potential to change customer experiences.”
He added that Amazon is helping make AI-powered applications available to other businesses as well, through Amazon Web Services. “During the past 18 months, AWS has launched more than twice as many machine learning and generative AI features into general availability than all the other major cloud providers combined.”
- Amazon also recently said that predictive algorithms were behind the increasing speed of its delivery network.
However, the Retail AI index found no correlation between rank and revenue size yet, and a number of small and mid-sized players, such as Stitch Fix, Poshmark, and Revolve, have distinguished themselves. The report commended the former for using AI-based technologies to deliver its personal styling services and recommendations.