The data suggests that newer technologies with the potential to fundamentally reshape how people shop may still be mired in the "inflated expectations" stage of Gartner's famed "Hype Cycle”
But that doesn't mean radical changes in the retail sector won't ever happen. AI, for example, has the potential to introduce a host of customer-facing labor saving practices such as chatbots and self-checkout. It can also help retailers in not-so-obvious ways from the shopper's perspective.
According to an August 2018 Capgemini survey of 400 retail executives worldwide, AI could save retailers $340 billion annually as soon as 2022, with most of those savings resulting from supply chain and return improvements.
Additional data from Total Retail, Radial and NAPCO Media found that nearly one-third of US retail industry professionals polled in late 2018 expected AI to have the biggest effect on the retail sector in 2019.