The Accelerating Pace of AI Rollouts With Alex Siskos

In this episode of Telaid Tech Connect, Alex Siskos, Senior VP of Strategy at Everseen, explores the accelerating pace of AI rollouts and how AI and computer vision combine to deliver new and powerful insights to retailers. In this episode, we explore growing use cases and deployment pitfalls.  

 

IN THIS EPISODE:  

 

• [2:18] Why did Everseen start with AI solutions at the self-checkout? 
• [6:10] What are some opportunities you see for AI beyond the self-checkout experience?   
• [10:49] How did Everseen start to “lift and shift” technology?  
• [12:39] How do retailers avoid the deployment of AI as a point solution, instead building an AI platform that consolidates and collectively solves key business problems?   
• [20:08] What are some hurdles you see when it comes to AI deployments?  
• [23:51] What hurdles have you seen when adopting computer vision?  

 

KEY TAKEAWAYS:  

 

• When Everseen set out, the founder’s lifelong mission was to reengineer critical business processes in retail to make them more efficient, save money and/or reduce threats. As retailers transitioned from staffed checkout lanes to self-checkout, they could not see what inventory was lost, how, why, or by whom. By fusing AI and computer vision, we could give retailers actionable information in the moment. 
• AI/computer vision also turns friction into moments of self-correction. If the system determines that someone has missed an item or can’t find the scan code, it can show them how, allowing for self-correction and prevention of an unintentional loss. 
• The amount of data is increasing with every store deploying this technology. Across 50,000 AI edge points Everseen has installed, which capture video every single day, there are now about 200 years of video that we are ingesting and analyzing. This video includes about 15 million transactions with 220 million SKUs involved in those transactions. Keeping eyes on all of that and providing context is where Everseen adds value, breaking that video into smaller, more manageable pieces.  
• With point-deployments, retailers run the risk of having several ISVs internally that don’t talk to one another. This creates overlap, confusion and leaves departments fighting over camera use. 
• Retailer is coming out of a pandemic and going back to “normal.” But the new “normal” is riddled with inflation, crazy macroeconomic situations, international wars, supply chain disruptions and other problems. This means a marathon-like effort to adopt new technologies is occurring at a sprint pace.  

 

LINKS MENTIONED  

 

Everseen 

 

LinkedIn – Alex Siskos 

 

BIO:  

 

Alex joined Everseen in 2017, bringing more than 25 years’ experience in retail strategy and analytics. He previously served in leadership positions at Walgreens, led the entry of Blue Yonder into North America, which was later acquired by JDA. He also held business process strategy, market development and analytics roles at Accenture, Nielsen and Crossmark. Alex leads market analysis and corporate strategy for Everseen, helping to drive the company’s growth across the retail sector as well as its expansion into a variety of other market segments.