These slides were used for my presentation at the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association's annual Expo, 2020. Building materials and home improvement is a market ripe for disruption. This presentation draws on much of our retail AI landscape research at Emerj: https://emerj.com/?s=retail

1. Artificial Intelligence in Lumber
Retail (Home Depot, Lowe’s, etc)
A presentation for the Northeastern Retail Lumber Association Annual Expo, 2020
Daniel Faggella
CEO, Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research

2. Presentation Preview
● Emerj in Brief
● Clearing Hype
● Use-Cases
● Near-Term Applications
emerj.com @danfaggella

3. At Emerj, we have a singular focus:
Mapping what’s possible and what’s working
with AI to help leaders execute on winning AI
strategies.
Global organizations trust us to support their AI
goals and strategies with critical data and insight.
Presenting our AI Research at
United Nations HQ, NYC
Emerj Artificial Intelligence Research

4. Emerj AI Opportunity Landscape
emerj.com @danfaggella

5. emerj.com @danfaggella

6. emerj.com @danfaggella
Emerj AI Research

7. Clearing the AI Hype
emerj.com @danfaggella

8. Impact
Emerj:
Our hundreds of AI expert interviewees differ in their opinions on many
topics, but they unanimously agree that the workflows, processes, and
ways of servicing customers will change in every industry.
PwC:
AI could contribute up to $15.7 trillion to the global economy in 2030.

9. Impact

10. The State of AI in Business
Appearance:
Everyone is doing it.
It’s transforming all
industries already.
Just add data scientists or
an AI vendor = results.
Accessible to all
businesses.
Reality:
Everyone is talking about it.
It’s bumbling to find a fit in
the enterprise.
Huge internal changes
required.
Accessible to firms with
large R&D budgets and
data science skill.
emerj.com

11. State of AI Startups
Of “AI companies”
even have requisite AI
talent on their teams.
⅓ ⅓Of AI companies with
talent have any kind
of real traction.

13. Challenges
1. AI is Not IT
● Iteration required
● Data access
required
● Cross-functional
teams
A change in culture,
workflows, and teams
is necessary to enable
it.
2. AI Ignorance
● What does AI do?
● How does AI
work?
● Where could I
apply it?
● etc...
3. Nascent Use-Cases
AI is experimental by
nature, and the current
use-cases for
enterprise are new.
When startups stay
afloat from revenue,
not VC money there
will be more tried and
true use-cases.
emerj.com

14. Seeing the Future
- Current Retail Use-Cases
emerj.com @danfaggella

15. Best View Into the Future for SMBs
1. Look to big tech (Amazon, Google,
etc).
2. Look to top 5-10 largest firms in
your sector.
emerj.com @danfaggella

16. Lowe’s
emerj.com @danfaggella

17. Lowe’s - LoweBot
emerj.com

18. Lowe’s - LoweBot
Purported Capabilities:
- Tracking inventory on
shelves with computer
vision
- Helping customer
navigate to products
Status:
- Was piloted in 2016 in the
SF Bay Area
- No major press pushes
since 2016
- MAY be helping with
inventory, unlikely to be
helping real customers
emerj.com

19. Lowe’s 3D
emerj.com @danfaggella

20. Lowe’s - LoweBot
Purported Capabilities:
- “Preview” products in
your actual living space
with VR or phone
- Browse items in 3D
online
Status:
- In private beta since
September of 2017
- Lowe’s customers cannot
use this product today
(Look out: Walmart)

21. Home Depot
emerj.com @danfaggella

22. Home Depot - Zebra
Technologies
emerj.com @danfaggella

23. Home Depot - Zebra
Technologies
Purported Capabilities:
- Pooling data to decrease
shrinkage and fraud
- Detecting patterns
across checkout data,
inventory data, etc
Status:
- Claimed (in Aug 2019) to
be rolling out across 1900
locations, status unclear
- Rolling out first to the
asset protection
department
(Look out: Computer
vision)
emerj.com @danfaggella

24. Home Depot - Recommendations
emerj.com @danfaggella

25. Home Depot - Zebra
Technologies
Purported Capabilities:
- Recommending related
products or replacement
products to customers on
HomeDepot.com
- Human “AI trainers” label
data
Status:
- Claimed to be active
across most of their online
categories
emerj.com @danfaggella

26. Inevitable Retail AI Applications
emerj.com @danfaggella

27. Accessibility of AI
Today:
- “Doing AI” = Science
For Small Business:
- AI will become accessible
when it can simply be
“plugged in” and used (like
Quickbooks, or Wordpress)
emerj.com @danfaggella

28. AI in Retail Opportunity Landscape

29. Opportunity Landscape Trend 1:
Logistics
● Data is being pooled from inventory, from
transportation, and from other sources, providing the
ability to forecast inventory levels, stocks needs,
arrival times, etc.
● Inevitable: Nine and ten-figure retailers will digitize
the clean their retail data to make it visible and
useable.
emerj.com @danfaggella

30. Opportunity Landscape Trend 2:
Personalization
● The web experience is being customized in terms of
product listings, promotions, and search results - to
the preferences of the user.
● Inevitable: Retailers with sizable online sales (and
strong AI departments) will use AI to improve the
relevance of online search.
emerj.com @danfaggella

31. Adopt or Wait?

32. Parting Takeaways
General Advice for AI Adoption:
- Observe the AI investments of your largest competitors / Amazon
- Lean away from paper and towards transparent, reliable, real-time data
- Each IT / process decision takes you farther or closer
For > $80MM Firms:
- Develop a clear sense of where AI opportunity lies in your business
- Start small with high-ROI use cases
- Prepare to overhaul the way data is collected, stored, and accessed
For SMBs:
- No need to invest in AI now, observe the “General Advice” above

33. Contact:
research@emerj.com
Download:
emerj.com/RET1
emerj.com
That’s All, Folks

34. http://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/lowebot / http://www.lowesinnovationlabs.com/lowes3d /
https://www.forbes.com/sites/insights-intelai/2018/07/17/software-for-hardware-how-artificial-
intelligence-is-helping-lowes-customers/#39b264c84286 /
https://chainstoreage.com/technology/home-depot-increases-sales-visibility-for-decreased-shrink
/ https://www.figure-eight.com/success-stories/home-depot/ / https://emerj.com/ai-sector-
overviews/artificial-intelligence-retail/ / https://emerj.com/ai-sector-overviews/computer-vision-
applications-shopping-driving-and-more/
emerj.com
Links / References