AI Revolutionizes Data Analysis, Enhancing Efficiency and Security for Retailers

July 5, 2023 : Insight Enterprises, a technology solutions integrator, has launched a new service to harness the power of generative AI tools to benefit its clients’ businesses. In an interview with Carm Taglienti, a distinguished engineer and adjunct professor at Northeastern University, the focus was on how this technology can assist retailers. Insight works with various retail establishments, including specialty stores, department stores, convenience stores, and e-commerce companies.

Taglienti highlighted several areas where AI could be valuable in retail, such as enhancing security measures, tracking customer lifetime value, monitoring theft and merchandise demand, and more. Retailers can observe and act upon customer behavior by deploying sensors, cameras, and other tools.

Insight has leveraged decades of experience building data solutions to develop the Lens Accelerator, a suite of accelerator products that includes Lens for Gen AI—a customizable generative AI solution. This modern platform can be deployed in any store format and serves as a foundation for migration or modernization initiatives, providing a secure and compliant environment to integrate and scale collected data.

Acknowledging concerns about AI’s accuracy and potential errors, Taglienti explained that the practical use of generative AI is still in its early stages. However, he sees significant potential for benefits as the technology continues to evolve and improve.

Insight’s Lens for the generative AI approach is built on four foundational pillars:

1. It creates a secure and scalable enterprise instance of generative AI within the client’s environment.
2. It identifies and prioritizes high-value use cases by leveraging Insight’s expertise across the client’s value chains.
3. It utilizes the Insight Lens platform, which employs a metadata-driven architecture to collect and process data from multiple enterprise sources into a modern data warehouse.
4. It designs, builds, and deploys infrastructure to support the generative AI platform.

Matt Jackson, CTO of Insight, praised the unique capabilities of the Insight Lens framework, which can quickly ingest large volumes of enterprise data and integrate it into a central repository for enhanced visibility, analysis, and business value. Adding generative AI capabilities is expected to expedite clients’ data-driven transformation efforts.