#113: AI takes over the holiday season

Happy Friday and welcome to This Week in CX! We're bringing you our roundup of industry news summarised in an exclusive LinkedIn newsletter. For more detail on any news featured here, check out 'This week in CX' on the Customer Experience Magazine (CXM) website.

This week, we’ve been looking at emerging consumer trends as the holiday season approaches, as well as is CX now at the crossroads.

AI takes the reins: consumers embrace artificial intelligence for holiday shopping

According to a 2024 Holiday Survey conducted by Talkdesk , Inc., a global provider of AI-powered customer experience (CX) technology that serves retail enterprises of all sizes, which found 90% of shoppers are using AI in some form this holiday shopping season, up from 88% in 2023.

Among retailers responding to this shift by adopting AI, 59% of AI-adopting retailers are using it to support customer service. Other AI-based technologies retailers planned to deploy include predictive analytics to identify consumer spending trends (61%), systems to customize product pages and promotions based on analytics (51%), AI-generated product listings or images (49%), and AI-generated product listings that allow shoppers to edit and customize product images (46%) quickly.

However, not all retailers are jumping on the AI bandwagon. According to the survey, 39% of retailers not using AI are unconcerned about providing a lower-quality holiday shopping experience compared to their competitors that have embraced the technology.

• Companies including Google, Amazon and Microsoft (LinkedIn’s parent company) are investing substantial amounts of money into nuclear power in the hope that it can fuel their artificial intelligence ambitions. AI systems such as ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini are trained and supported by rows-upon-rows of energy-hungry servers in datacentres. These facilities are putting a strain on grids around the world.
• The National Football League and Cisco, have announced that the NFL is now leveraging Cisco’s industry-leading enterprise networking and cybersecurity solutions to connect and protect the NFL International Games. Through the agreement, the NFL will continue to rely on the same Cisco technology and expertise used for the Super Bowl, NFL Draft and NFL Kickoff to bolster their operations across a growing slate of international games, which includes matchups in São Paulo, London and Munich in 2024 and Madrid in 2025.
• LVMH shares dropped 7% after the company reported a 3% decline in third-quarter sales, primarily due to weak consumer spending in China and a challenging global economic landscape. Its core fashion and leather goods division, which includes brands such as Louis Vuitton, Dior and Givenchy, saw a 5% sales decline, the first since 2020

In case you missed it...

Are you caught up on the top articles we published? Give them a read if not!

Thanks for tuning into CXM’s weekly roundup of industry news. To find out the new coverages in full and more, remember to check this week's post. Check back next Friday for the latest updates of the week!