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The Agile Brand with Greg Kihlström®: Expert Mode Marketing Technology, AI, & CX
#655: AI and Automation in the supply chain with Nick Stuart, RSM
00:23:18
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- [00:00]
Domo Representative
We all know data is valuable. We use it to tell a story to make informed decisions for our businesses. But turning data into actionable insights can be a challenge. It's time to unlock the true potential of your business data with Domo's AI and Data Products platform. Domo lets you channel AI and data into innovative uses that deliver a measurable impact. Ask your data Anything at any time. Anyone on your team can use Domo to easily prepare, analyze, visualize, automate and distribute data, all amplified by AI. Domo goes beyond productivity. It's designed to transform your processes, helping you make smarter and faster decisions and drive real growth. All powered by Domo's trust, flexibility and years of expertise in data and AI innovation. Data is hard. Domo is easy. Make smarter decisions and propel your business forward with Domo. Learn more today@AI that's AI.domo.com the Agile.
- [01:03]
Greg Kilstrom
Brand.
- [01:11]
Welcome to season seven of the Agile Brand where we discuss the trends and topics marketing leaders need to know. Stay curious, stay agile and join the top enterprise brands and Martech platforms as we explore marketing technology, AI, E commerce and whatever's next for the Omnichannel customer experience. Together we'll discover what it takes to create an agile brand built for today and tomorrow and built for customers, employees and continued business growth. I'm your host Greg Kilstrom, advising Fortune 1000 brands on martech, AI and marketing operations. The Agile Brand podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, an industry leader in full stack technology services, talent services and real world application. For more information go to teksystems.com to make sure you always get the latest episodes, please hit subscribe on the app you listen to podcasts on and leave us a rating so others can find us as well. And now onto the show.
- [02:10]
We are here at ITAL Palm Springs and seeing and hearing the latest and greatest in E commerce and retail. AI and automation are transforming retail operations from customer experience to supply chain efficiency. But as we move into 2025, retailers face increasing tariffs, labor shortages and cost pressures. How can AI not just improve margins, but actually reshape the way retailers operate to stay competitive in a rapidly changing landscape? Joining me today is Nick Stewart, US Consumer Products Retail Consulting Leader at RSM where he focuses on AI and automation's impact on the retail industry. Nick, welcome to the show.
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Nick Stewart
Thank you so much Greg. Happy to be here.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, looking forward to talking about this with you. Before we dive in though, why don't you give a little background on yourself and your role at rsm.
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, thanks so much so, yeah, I'm the retail consulting leader for rsm. RSM is a leading middle market provider for audit, tax and consulting services. And I really focus on our industry trends, analyzing what's going on in the marketplace, focused on innovation, both bringing that back to our internal teams, as well as providing thought leaderships to our clients.
- [03:16]
Greg Kilstrom
Great, great. So, yeah, we're going to talk about a few things here today relating to AI and retail. I want to start with the customer experience. And so AI we talk about a lot on the show. Of course, as you imagine. I know you were just on the AI Summit here at etel. AI, it's becoming a critical tool in doing a lot of things, including improving customer interaction. So how are you seeing AI transforming customer service in retail today?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean, I think that one thing that's interesting in the retail space is that AI is not new. Right. We've seen chatbots, we've seen these machine learning technologies be put into place for customer experience for quite a long time. A lot of people have become really frustrated with them. But I think the LLMs have really changed the game. They've become more humanized. They are able to take on tasks that kind of more mimic humans. But I think the real opportunity is actually accelerating and improving the ability for customer service agents to work with AI to be able to improve the customer experience. So, you know, one of the challenges that we've seen is like there's so many different data sets that, you know, a company has serving a customer. You really have to have access to all those data points, your orders, you know, your payments, ability to be able to do refunds, all things that really kind of sit in different systems. One of the biggest challenges customer service agents have had is the ability to consolidate that information and provide quick service. Right. So it's both slow, which is not a good customer experience, and the customer service agent kind of fumbles through really making it like not a great employee experience.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, And I mean those two issues, I mean, not only the customer service reps kind of fumbling for the right answer, but also AI just, it works best with just a lot of data and a lot of good data and breadth of data. So sounds like the two kind of solve similar problems, right?
- [05:20]
Nick Stewart
Yeah. Humans with technology. Right. I think that that's the one big theme when I hear people talking about what the opportunities are, at least initially, I don't see it as much complete replacement, but augmentation to be able to really improve the output and capability of people to do their jobs.
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Greg Kilstrom
So Talking with a lot of retailers and working with them. What are some of the key areas that you would advise focusing on when implementing AI and customer service?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I think going back to the employee workflow, what is the current employee experience starting there? What are the opportunities to augment key things that require a lot of data that you have that you can leverage. So training is a really good one, Right? Training has always been a problem because one, things change really fast, it's really expensive to document and quite frankly, as an employee, it's not a good experience to go through 100 page manual and try to understand what actually means on a day to day basis. So LLMs are great at being able to train people on data sets. I think that's a really good one. I think looking at ways that a customer service agent can, with a natural language model, be able to query all of the data and get a quick answer and quick access to information about the customer that then they can use to service the customer is really key. So looking for those opportunities really of ways that they can make that employee experience more effective and more productive.
- [06:53]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah. And so you mentioned early on about, you know, some of the initial frustrations with things like chatbots and you know, I'm sure we've all been on the phone tree, doom loop kind of chat bots. You know, the dumber chat bots kind of suffer from the same issues. But you know, as you mentioned with LLM and some other more advanced technologies, they're getting a lot better. But still, you know, how, how would you recommend that a company look at balancing those, you know, the balance is definitely needed, but how should they kind of look at when to use AI versus human and how to make that right balance?
- [07:30]
Nick Stewart
Yeah, it's a good question. I think you need to build in workflows and processes that leverage what a customer is looking for, which is quick access, ability to self serve. Right. Always going back to customer. You hear that throughout this show. Always going back to what your customer's looking for. So if your customer is looking for quick access to be able to ask a question without the delay of being able to get to a customer service agent, that's a great use of an AI tool. But you have to give them the ability to jump over that, what they prefer as a human element. So you know, you've got to offer both solutions to your customer and let your customer dictate what experience that they want.
- [08:10]
Domo Representative
We all know data is valuable. We use it to tell a story, to make informed decisions for our businesses. But turning data into actionable insights can be a challenge. It's time to unlock the true potential of your business. Data with Domo's AI and Data Products platform. Domo lets you channel AI and data into innovative uses that deliver a measurable impact. Ask your data Anything at any time. Anyone on your team can use Domo to easily prepare, analyze, visualize, automate and distribute data, all amplified by AI. Domo goes beyond productivity. It's designed to transform your processes, helping you make smarter and faster decisions and drive real growth. All powered by Domo's trust, flexibility and years of expertise in data and AI innovation. Data is hard. Domo is easy. Make smarter decisions and propel your business forward with Domo. Learn more today@AI.domo.com that's AI. Domo want to learn more and join the discussion About Marketing and AI attend a premier conference dedicated to marketing and AI. That's Meacon, the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Conference from October 14 through 16 in Cleveland, Ohio. MEAKON brings together the brightest minds and leading voices in AI. Don't miss this opportunity to connect with a dynamic community of experts, visionaries and enthusiasts. The Agile brand is proud to be the lead media sponsor of this important event. Register today@MarketingAIInstitute.com that's MarketingAI Institute.com and use the code AGILE150 for $150 off your registration fee. I can't wait to see you there.
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Greg Kilstrom
So let's Another big topic not only here but but just in general is supply chain. And you know, we've been hearing a lot about a lot of challenges that retailers and other companies have been hit hard in recent years with with issues. How is AI helping predict and potentially prevent some supply chain disruptions?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean the one thing that's that's certain is that there are going to be supply chain disruptions, right? So we don't necessarily know what they're going to be in six days, let alone six months. So I think you need to build an infrastructure that is nimble, that allows your supply chain folks, your procurement teams, your logistics operators, even your warehouses to be able to make decisions with data quickly. That's been the biggest challenge with supply chain over the years is one it's very hard and very data intensive to be able to compile and build data driven decisions. So AI is very good at pulling that data forward, compiling it from multiple systems so you can normalize it, and then using the kind of LLMs in the natural language model to be able to ask questions. Hey, should I Pull this order forward to make sure that I meet all my customer demands and orders. That's a question that I've seen done in kind of a live environment that is extremely powerful. That would take days, maybe even weeks for a data analyst or a procurement person to look through and figure out if you can do that in minutes. You can make decisions really quickly that you can actually impact your customers and ability to deliver to your customers.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah. Cause I mean that's on both ends of that. You've got either excess inventory or you've got stock outs or something. So being able to do that, I mean. Yeah. In a chat like interface, it sounds, sounds amazing. Yeah, yeah.
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Nick Stewart
And with current cost of capital, you know, the CFOs are really kind of making sure that they're looking hard at how much inventory that they're sitting on. Right. More than, more than there has been in the past. So there's more demands, not only from a supply chain impact and disruption, but also just the current cost of carrying capital like that is extremely expensive. So there's more need to be able to keep inventory levels to where they're necessary without kind of diminishing the ability to deliver.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, and I mean, I think the other, the other part here is, and you touched on this, is to ask that question previously, it would take a request to some data team, to the. You know, I've seen that firsthand. You know, it can take days, weeks, you know, to get those. The democratization of this. Right. And analytics, whether it's, you know, predicting something, a potential challenge, or predicting an opportunity, or just getting quicker insights. How are you seeing adoption of AI driven analytics and retail?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, it's a really good question. I mean, analytics is always tough because I think of historic power, bi, tableau, whatever the platform is that you build, you've got to first look at what data do I need for this. Then you're building dashboards that's kind of perceiving that you're gonna have the right information for people to make decisions. If it's not, then you've gotta kind of go back to those data teams and those data visualization team members to build new dashboards. Right. Which is a common problem. So the biggest problem is without a ability to be able to ask a question and get the data you need for that specific request, you're always guessing what to data visualize. So I think that the real opportunity becomes that natural questionability and I think the adoption is going to be really high because it doesn't require people to have anything More than a question.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. And so how does that change that dynamic? Again? Probably a lot of enterprise people listening to this, like that dynamic of data engineer is still very valuable, but how do the roles change in the organization from that perspective?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I think it becomes proactive and not reactive. So I think you've got data folks that are working on data cleanliness, understanding any data biases, testing and working with the front end subject matter experts to ensure that the solutions are working that the way that they intend. Instead of receiving a request that I need this data to answer this question. Right. So it's really moving up and making those people more solution for focused instead of, you know, firefighting.
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Greg Kilstrom
I mean, and that to be honest, that sounds like a win win for everybody. Right. I mean the, you know, the marketers, the, the E commerce folks are able to ask questions and get answers quickly without having to again send something in a queue for two weeks to get an answer. And the data folks are doing more, probably more valuable work or seemingly valuable because they're not just order takers. Right.
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Nick Stewart
So yeah, and it comes down to actual value. Right. So one of the things is if you've got the same team members with the same output, yeah, the employee experience is better, maybe they make better decisions in a marginal way. But as you scale, right. As you get more people doing those supply chain jobs, if it's all reactive, you have to have more data folks. Right. Because the output of questions is just higher. With this strategy you're really able to scale better without having that kind of labor increase need at the same pace.
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Greg Kilstrom
And how does this factor into. So there's more people with more access to data, which sounds great. How does this factor into people making better decisions? You know, what is the, maybe some of that goes to like data literacy even or you know, how, how do you look at, at that component of it?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean that's, that's, that's going to be a challenge. Right. You know, one of the risks with all of this is, you know, the access to data is so much higher, you become more reliant on it. You've got to make sure that people understand how the models work, understand what data they're querying with those requests so that if they see bias in the data or something that doesn't make sense, they're thinking through that. Right. And not making blind decisions. That's why there's a human in the workflow. Like if, if there was no need for that human element to be in there and make that decision, you'd skip it. I don't think we're there yet. I think we've got to have that human decision maker in the loop and I think that's a key role for those people and there's going to be some upskilling to get there.
- [16:37]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. But I mean, that said, having more agency, for lack of a better term with the data, being able to ask those questions, being able to get things quicker. What impact does this have on things like employee satisfaction and even retention?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean, I think about myself, I don't like rudimentary tasks. I don't like searching for materials when I think that they should be accessible to me without having to search for those. I like training to be very specific for the need that I have. So all of those things can really improve the employee experience and their output.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah. And so, you know, I think you've kind of touched on this already. But you know, there certainly there's a lot of fear sometimes misunderstanding about how AI will either replace jobs or fundamentally change. I mean, you mentioned upskilling as well, not necessarily a replacement, but there's a lot of uncertainty here. What's your take on how should retailers be thinking about this as they're the train has left the station so it's not going back. But how should they support this in a way that is also supporting employees?
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Nick Stewart
Yeah, I think they need to be transparent with their employees. I think there's a lot of fear out there. So being transparent about what the goals are, having employees understand that it's actually going to improve their day to day, is a huge hurdle, but one that I think will be really successful if communicated correctly. The reality is that if you're sitting at the executive level, labor is really tight. There is not enough labor right now to be able to scale businesses. It's been a challenge. We're seeing productivity as US GDP entirely actually increase. Right. You're seeing increased productivity at the, at the kind of macro level. And I really believe that part of that, not all of it, but part of that is some of this automation that's being put into daily jobs and they are increasing output per. And I think that communication from the executive level down, we're trying to achieve more productivity with the same hours that you guys put in today. Right. We're going to invest in technology to be able to increase your output, which is going to allow us to scale with less overhead as a company.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah. And it's, I mean it's, it's the good kind of productivity too. Right. It's like it's the meaningful, strategic. You could even call it creative output. Right. That humans, I mean, let humans do what humans do well and machines do what machines do well.
- [19:08]
Nick Stewart
Right, right. Yeah, no, exactly. I mean, you know, if you tell employees that we're going to increase productivity BY you working 50% more, that's not going to be a message that's received. Well. Right, right. But if you tell somebody that they're going to be able to do their job more effectively and be able to focus on the tasks that actually achieve a greater productivity with better tools, I don't think anybody's going to be mad about it.
- [19:32]
Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, totally. So, looking ahead, you know, months, a couple years even, you know, we talked about a lot of the challenges that retailers are facing. What's on your radar as far as, you know, whether it's AI, whether it's other things to help navigate some of these challenges.
- [19:47]
Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean, I think the pace at which the technology is moving is breakneck speed. So, you know, right now we kind of know what the capabilities are of these LLMs. We kind of know what's on the roadmap a bit for automation. You know, AGI is something thrown out there like it's going to happen.
- [20:05]
Greg Kilstrom
I heard as of this morning it's supposed to happen in 12 months. So just.
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Nick Stewart
And I won't be surprised if it is. It's amazing how fast it's moving. But I think, you know, as far as from an industry perspective, I think again, you need to focus on what you can control. I think you need to create a experimental culture within your organization because at the pace that this is moving, you need not only kind of the top level people thinking about innovation, you need everybody in the organization thinking about innovation. So in order to prepare ourselves for what is inevitably unknown at this point, you've got to have a culture of experimentation so that when those new tools are released, there's a culture to be able to really innovate quickly.
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Greg Kilstrom
Yeah, yeah, I love that. Well, before we wrap up here, one last question I like to ask everybody. What do you do to stay agile in your role and how do you find a way to do it consistently?
- [20:59]
Nick Stewart
Yeah, I mean, if I'm not agile, I can't do my job. So I am very focused on making sure I look at priorities, what things that are most important to our customers and making sure I focus not only my time, but our service line times, our internal folks, making sure we're adjusting to the current market trends that we see in the marketplace. And then making plans and prioritizing those things based on where we see the highest output.
- [21:26]
Greg Kilstrom
Great.
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Domo Representative
Great.
- [21:26]
Greg Kilstrom
Well again, I'd like to thank Nick Stewart, Retail Consulting Leader at rsm. To learn more about Nick and rsm, you can follow the links in the show notes and stay tuned for more of my interviews from here at ETEL Palm Springs.
- [21:41]
Thanks again for listening to the Agile Brand brought to you by Tech Systems. If you enjoyed the show, please take a minute to subscribe and leave us a rating so that others can find the show as well. You can access more episodes of the show@theagilebrand.com that's the agile brand.com and contact me if you're interested in consulting or advisory services or are looking for a speaker for your next event, go to www.gregkilstrom.com that's G R E G K I H L S t r o m.com the Agile brand is produced by Missing Link, a Latina owned, strategy driven, creatively fueled production co op. From ideation to creation, they craft human connections through intelligent, engaging and informative content. Until next time, stay curious and stay agile.
- [22:34]
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- [22:39]
Domo Representative
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- [23:34]
Greg Kilstrom
Before we continue, I wanted to share a key strategic resource that a majority of the Fortune 500 are already aware of. Finding the best technology, business and talent solutions is not easy. With business demands and competitive pressures mounting, you need to be able to design, deploy and optimize your technology to provide leading customer experiences while driving business growth. Those of you that have been listening to this show for a while know that this podcast is brought to you by Tech Systems, a global provider of technology, business and talent solutions for more than 80% of the Fortune 500. TechSystems accelerates business transformation for their customers. Whether you're looking to maximize your technology ROI, drive business growth, or elevate customer experiences, TechSystems enables enterprises to capitalize on change. Learn more at techsystems.com that's T E K systems.com now let's get back to the show.