Cognitive AI: Transforming E-commerce through Image, Sound and Text Analysis

If you run an online store, enhancing customer experience is likely a top priority. You want to ensure that customers can effortlessly locate the products they’re seeking, receive adequate information, and feel content with their purchases. However, with rising competition and increased expectations, how can you achieve this? The solution lies in AI.

AI, or artificial intelligence, refers to computer systems that can learn from data and execute tasks that typically necessitate human intelligence. One lucrative application of AI is in managing image, sound, and text, collectively termed cognitive applications. This blog will delve into the concept of cognitive applications, their functionality, and how you can leverage them to enhance your online store.

Understanding Cognitive AI  

Cognitive applications are AI systems that can interpret or produce image, sound, or text. These mediums are fundamental to human communication, learning, and enjoyment. Consider the following illustrations:

• Unlocking your phone using facial recognition, where AI analyzes and matches your face against a stored image.
• Requesting nearby restaurant information from Siri or Google Assistant, exemplifying sound recognition, where AI processes your voice, converts it to text, and conducts a search.
• Reading a book summary on Bol.com  , representing text generation, where AI condenses a longer text to highlight key points. Cognitive applications serve two primary functions: recognition and generation.

We recognize two core functionalities within cognitive applications: recognition and generation.

1. Recognition  

This refers to AI’s capability to identify and interpret images, sound, or text. Examples include facial recognition on mobile devices, music identification through Shazam, and natural language processing in chatbots or Google Home.

2. Generation  

This denotes AI’s ability to create or modify images, sounds, or text. Examples include Snapchat filters that enhance your appearance, text-to-speech features that read emails aloud, and automated text summaries.

How Cognitive AI Can Enhance Your Online Store  

Cognitive applications can significantly improve your online store in various ways. Here are some methods by which cognitive AI can enrich product data, scrutinize customer responses, and generate content.

1. Enriching Product Data  

Online shoppers frequently desire to filter products based on specific attributes. AI can enhance your product catalog by adding filter properties derived from product images.

For example, bol.com  , employs AI to identify sleeve lengths of t-shirts from their photos. Consequently, customers can filter by sleeveless, long, short, or 3/4 sleeve options. This not only streamlines product information management but also expands filtering capabilities, thus improving the shopping experience.

2. Generating Product Descriptions  

It’s crucial for customers to easily discover your products. Having compelling and unique product descriptions is vital for visibility in search engines. AI can automatically generate these distinctive descriptions. For instance, Sonepar, a global electrical product wholesaler, needed to provide online access to their extensive product range in Germany. Instead of manually crafting descriptions for a million items—a daunting task—they utilized AI algorithms to automatically produce unique product texts. This approach saved time and costs while enhancing theirGoogle visibility.

3. Creating New Content  

AI can be employed to produce novel content derived from your existing material, providing fresh inspiration and entertainment for customers. For example, Netflix  uses AI to create trailers that showcase their movies and series. This offers customers a glimpse of what they can anticipate.

Netflix’s AI model amalgamates images, sounds, and text to craft appealing videos. It examines the content’s essence, style, and mood, selecting the most intriguing scenes, accompanied by suitable music, voice-overs, and subtitles, resulting in captivating trailers that pique interest.

4. Analyzing Customer Feedback  

A high level of customer satisfaction promotes repeat business. Many organizations conduct customer satisfaction surveys (CSAT) to gauge feedback and improve services. AI can mine the open-ended responses to discern primary themes.

Take the Nationale Loterij  as an example, which accumulates numerous monthly CSAT responses. Through AI algorithms, they analyze these responses, identifying key themes through a combination of techniques that are visualized on a dashboard, enabling them to pinpoint strengths and opportunities for improvement.

The Future of Cognitive AI in E-commerce  

For companies to utilize these cutting-edge technologies, access to varied datasets and robust AI models is essential. Luckily, pre-trained models from major tech companies simplify the adoption of cognitive AI, even for those with limited data. This accessibility benefits a wide array of businesses, from startups to large retailers.

The future of e-commerce will undoubtedly incorporate smart technologies like cognitive AI. By personalizing and optimizing online shopping experiences, businesses can not only enhance operational efficiency but also improve customer satisfaction and engagement. As technology progresses, we can anticipate even more innovative applications that will redefine what’s achievable in the e-commerce sector.

Conclusion  

In summary, cognitive applications are AI systems capable of recognizing or generating images, audio, or text. They can enhance your online store by enriching product data, analyzing customer feedback, and crafting content. This enables better customer service, a competitive edge, and increased revenue.