According to Juniper Research, global retailers spent 7.4 billion on AI technology this year, with a forecast of exponential growth in the years to come. This will come as no surprise to those who have shopped Lowe's website lately, which seamlessly assists shoppers online with everything from looking for supplies to purchasing appliances. 

What is setting Lowes, Burberry's and HP apart from their competitors? Quite simply, AI chatbots can achieve 50% plus rates of automation when they are at scale. In plain speak this equates to 50% of customers getting their questions answered effectively from Lowe's AI bot - without requiring assistance from a live customer service agent. In turn, customers are satisfied and leave the site without the frustration that has become commonplace when shopping online these days. 

What are these retailers' secret sauce? Having strong NLU  (Natural Language Understanding) about the business using troves of past conversational data which enables the Lowe's bot to effectively determine purchasing intentions. For example, a shopper interacting with Lowe's AI powered bot will find it easy to match the tile that she used in her basement a few years ago as the bot has the capability of immediately accessing that information. They can also utilize the automated chat function to narrow down their search for a paint to just the right type and color, making sure it's available in the closest Lowe's store and making a purchase.The intention sensitivity (often referred to as nested intent) is in fact is so fine-tuned that a customer can also ask two unrelated questions back-to-back and get a correct answer to both in seconds. 

Furthermore, through the artificial intelligence (AI) embedded in Lowe's app the customer can measure spaces in her house to see how various appliances would fit, avoiding the once-common headache of buying a refrigerator or washer that's an inch too wide for the space. 

Lowe's has long been on the cutting edge of using artificial intelligence (AI) and data to help customers find what they need - and help the store complete the sale. They even unveiled roving robots in their stores several years ago to guide customers to exactly the right place. Lowe's is one of the most successful examples of a trend in retail toward using artificial intelligence (AI) to help customers shop for items.

Along with the realm of customer service platforms, AI-enabled chat applications are now sophisticated enough to help customers pick out and purchase items, not just deal with problems after they've bought one. Luxury clothing retailer Burberry is another pioneer in the use of AI for enhancing customer experience and boosting sales. Over the past decade, Burberry has moved from helping salespeople steer customers toward appropriate items by arming them with the customer's past purchases to truly cutting-edge applications that integrate its app with brick-and-mortar shopping - as one executive once said, "walking through our doors is just like walking into our website." 

Notable tech companies such as LivePerson, Netomi are also utilizing their cutting-edge AI technology to fuel growth for companies across a broad range of industries such as tech, hospitality, gaming and fintech. In fact, their current client base includes HP, WestJet and Sodastream.

It's a billion dollar trend that shows no signs of slowing. Not only are chatbots becoming more effective than humans at helping customers match their needs to a product, they save retailers enormous money. The return on investment and profitability is high as the cost per customer is less than a dollar per conversation utilizing an AI bot versus three to four dollars per conversation to engage a customer service agent. 

The inevitable rise of AI chatbots for retail sales often leads to concerns about job losses among retail workers - not to mention call-center workers who handle both customer service and sales inquiries. While some churn in the industry is inevitable, the increasing use of AI is also creating a slew of better-paying jobs in software engineering, data management and related fields - and not only in the U.S, as this Bloomberg video demonstrates. In the long run, it's a win-win for consumers, retailers and workers.