Microsoft Dynamics 365’s AI tracks customer behavior in retail stores

Above: A store clerk responds to an alert from Microsoft Dynamics 365

Microsoft is rolling out two new software solutions today to help brick-and-mortar retailers track customers and improve service. Dynamics 365 Connected Store will utilize a combination of computer vision, cameras, and IoT sensors to track customers inside stores and personalize recommendations based on their browsing and buying behavioral data.

Events detected by Connected Store will trigger web app notifications or email alerts for in-store staff with predictions to improve sales and store efficiency.

Connected Store can do things like sense a need for more staff at checkout counters, identify issues with store equipment, and surface long-term trends for managers.

Also new is Dynamics 365 Commerce, software that pulls insights from businesses that have ecommerce and brick-and-mortar retail operations. Dynamics 365 Commerce will also use call center and back office data to power customer personalization.

A series of upgrades aimed at helping marketers and increasing customer satisfaction was also introduced today. This includes the expansion of Dynamics 365 Customer Insights to cover B2B use cases. Made generally available this spring for B2C use cases, Customer Insights draws on Azure Machine Learning and Azure Cognitive Services. It can now equip businesses with AI-powered tools to evaluate customers, draw insights from leads, and understand connections between customers and buying groups.

Above: Microsoft Dynamics 365 Customer Insights

Dynamics 365 Virtual Agent for Customer Service now calculates the amount of time a company saves using a conversational AI agent versus a human customer service agent. This metric will be available on a new enterprise bot dashboard, which will include a customer satisfaction score and a list of the topics used to arrive at the score.

Dynamics 365 Supply Chain Management will connect signals from IoT sensors with business transaction data to do things like predict the need for maintenance or replacement of equipment, while a fraud protection tool for ecommerce merchants is due out later this year.

A year ago, Microsoft Dynamics 365 introduced a series of solutions for the workplace — including enterprise Cortana skills and Microsoft’s first HoloLens-powered augmented reality experiences for the workplace.

Source: venturebeat