AI – A Growing Market with Huge Potential for eCommerce

With the role of Artificial Intelligence gaining dominance in our daily lives, one often ponders over the long-term impact of it. Explore the predicted development of the Artificial Intelligence market in the coming years while also examining the impact of AI on eCommerce.

Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest and most-discussed topics of the past months. Within the tech industry, this particular area has witnessed the highest investment sums and consequently the most vibrant research activities worldwide, with leading tech players like Google and Tesla driving further development. But since the release of the revolutionary AI-based chatbot ChatGPT, artificial intelligence has been covered in the media and been on peoples’ minds like never before, raising questions about AI’s potential, limits and possible threats.

AI market will surpass US$ 1 trillion by 2028

Without a doubt, AI has great potential in increasing efficiency and productivity by combining algorithms with huge amounts of collected data to make rational and informed decisions and thereby reduce the impact of human errors. Next Move Strategy Consulting attributes the AI market huge revenue potential:

According to Next Move Strategy Consulting, the AI market was worth US$142.3 billion in 2022, up almost 50% from 2021. For the current year, another increase in 46% is expected, which will result in a market size of US$207.9 billion by the end of the year. Although year-on-year growth of revenues in the artificial intelligence market is expected to slow down slightly over the next few years to around 30% year-on-year by 2030, the market will surpass the US$1 trillion threshold by 2028. For 2030, Next Move Strategy Consulting forecasts a total market volume of US$1.8 trillion.

AI will play a pivotal role in eCommerce

AI has great potential in a variety of industries from robotics to mobility. One of the most important use cases for artificial intelligence is eCommerce, in which AI-driven chatbots can improve customer experience and reduce return rates by offering products that better meet customer expectations – just to give an example of the potential that AI has for online retailers. And: AI algorithms can detect patterns and anomalies in customer behavior to identify fraudulent activities, such as payment fraud or fake reviews. Retailers can use AI-powered security systems to protect customer data, prevent unauthorized access, and ensure secure transactions. These are just examples of how AI can empower online retailers. There is plenty more that AI can do.

Italian eCommerce companies expect a significant impact

A current survey published by Casaleggio Associati shows that online retailers expect AI to impact their industry very soon. Casaleggio Associati asked decision-makers of 226 Italian eCommerce companies. Most of them expect artificial intelligence to have a significant impact on their business – and the majority is sure that this is going to happen soon:

With 38%, the greatest share of respondents expects AI to have an impact on eCommerce within the next three years. Another 30% expect a significant influence already within the next year and another 6% are sure that this is going to happen even earlier. In other words, three in four Italian eCommerce professionals state that they expect AI to influence their industry within the next three years. Only 3% expect no significant impact of AI on eCommerce in Italy at all. Some online retailers have even already started to adopt AI in their business models. German online fashion giant Zalando, for example, has announced plans to introduce a virtual shopping assistant with a ChatGPT integration, which helps customers find exactly what they need in the huge Zalando assortment.