We’re all thinking, is AI coming for my job? Short answer: No! You still need a human to drive results.
It’s becoming exceptionally difficult for visual merchandisers to keep up with the constantly changing expectations of merchandising teams, from being expert communicators, project managers, and analysts, all while finding the right tools to succeed. We all know AI can help manage some of these tasks. On the flip side, it can be scary to adopt AI technology that seems like it can take over your job.
An article from Business Harvard Review argues that while AI will not completely replace humans in the workforce, individuals who can effectively work alongside AI will outperform those who do not. It emphasizes that AI should be seen as a tool to enhance human capabilities rather than a threat to job security. We’re here to tell you what that means when it comes to AI for visual merchandisers:
Empowering Creativity and Innovation
This one is extra comforting. AI can’t replace the creativity of a human brain, especially one of a visual merchandiser, but it sure can help create more time and space to create and innovate. Combining all of the enhancing features from above, AI enhances visual merchandising efforts to improve the planning, execution, communication, and analysis of displays by allowing visual merchandisers to become strategic partners rooted in improving the business.
Enhanced Efficiency and Compliance
Adopting AI allows visual merchandisers to streamline manual processes, freeing them from repetitive tasks and the scary mess of their inboxes receiving questions from store teams trying to get displays right. AI-powered tools can be like the eyes and ears of visual merchandisers, almost as if there’s a visual merchandiser in every store to help with store compliance. Additionally, AI allows visual merchandisers to remediate issues in real time so there’s no delay in proper display execution.
Reduction in Overbearing Workloads
Visual merchandisers are so overloaded with work and have more put on their plates when plans are changed at the last minute as per HQ’s request. AI and automation can easily reduce the workload and give visual merchandisers time back in their day to focus on more impactful projects, even when tasks get thrown at them at the last minute. This even includes automatically updating plans already in the queue. This saves visual merchandisers from having to endlessly go through plans individually.
Real-time Insights and More Agility
As previously mentioned with compliance, AI can serve as the eyes and ears of visual merchandisers, even if they aren’t physically in stores. With the help of AI, retail teams can bring their plans to life much faster and with less stress. It will no longer matter how quickly visual merchandisers need to pivot to make sure their plans convert sales. While this may overlap a bit with an overall retail platform (like One Door!), digitizing your merchandising efforts with AI gives teams unmatched agility. This enables visual merchandisers to respond quickly to changing market dynamics, capitalize on trends, and stay nimble by streamlining communication, and collaboration, and providing real-time feedback on how store teams are executing on plans.
AI can’t replace human creativity. AI simply empowers visual merchandisers to explore new ideas and experiment with innovative concepts. It provides the chance for increased agility, better compliance data, quicker issue remediation, and so much more.
It’s time to enhance your visual merchandising efforts with the help of a powerful merchandising solution integrated with AI. Get started with One Door today!
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