Brand executives want to make sure their companies are staying ahead of technological shifts caused by artificial intelligence — but many are unsure where to start.
That was the takeaway from the virtual AI Commerce Strategies Town Hall, hosted exclusively for Glossy+ and Modern Retail+ subscribers. At the event, Glossy and Modern Retail reporters and editors shared what their sources are saying about how AI is impacting their work, while attendees shared what burning questions they had about how others are using AI.
Li Lu, research director at Digiday Media, kicked off the event with a preview of some upcoming research. The latest edition of Digiday Media’s State of AI research, which is slated to come out in December, found that AI adoption among marketers and agencies has doubled since 2022. Three years ago, the use of AI for many companies was still limited to basic chatbots.
Now, more marketers and agencies are experimenting with predictive AI and generative AI for tasks like financial analysis or text and image generation. But, media buying and sales are two areas that still remain relatively untouched by AI, at least according to research participants.
Then, Glossy and Modern Retail’s editor-in-chief, Jill Manoff, spoke about what attendees had to say about AI at Glossy’s recent Beauty & Wellness Summit. When asked what the biggest challenge was that they were experiencing in their day-to-day, about 27% of participants said something related to AI, including how to get ahead with AI, staying authentic as a brand in the age of AI and ensuring that AI integrations make sense in terms of working toward company goals.
Modern Retail senior reporter Julia Waldow, meanwhile, shared how brands are adjusting their SEO strategies in the face of generative engine optimization, or GEO. As more people turn to Perplexity and ChatGPT, rather than Google, for answers, brands can expect people to get even more specific about what they are searching for. Somebody who may have previously searched “best white men’s t-shirt” on Google may now be telling ChatGPT to “find me a men’s white t-shirt with a pocket in the front in size large.” To adapt to these more specific search queries, brands are investing more in their blog and editorial content, and even placing more emphasis on components like alt text to feed more information to these GEO engines.
Lastly, Glossy’s international fashion reporter, Zofia Zwieglinska, talked about what roles within the fashion industry are increasingly being aided by AI — and are potentially at risk of being replaced. Creative roles, in particular, have been aided by the ascent of image-generation tools, which are cutting down on the number of photo shoots fashion brands may have to do. She also talked about how fashion brands are using AI to do deeper personalization that goes beyond just simply recommending an item to a customer based on what other people who previously bought that item also bought.
During the Q&A portion, conducted under Chatham House Rules, participants wanted to know what tools other participants were using in an attempt to boost and measure mentions in GEO prompts. Meanwhile, one investor mentioned that brands had become very hesitant to roll out AI-generated creative, wary of the backlash brands like Guess and J.Crew have received.
Below, check out the first half of the talk, where and Glossy’s and Modern Retail’s editorial staff shared what they have heard in their reporting related to AI. And tune into the next Glossy+ and Modern Retail+ Town Hall to hear what your fellow retail executives are thinking about.
