Airport Experience® News - Retail Innovation Issue 2024

Above: Jordi Martin-Consuegra, the deputy CEO and president, North America, Avolta, says the company is harnessing AI for back of-house functions such as basket analytics and tools that identify optimal store inventory.

Above: Paradies Lagardère has employed AI in everything from customized visual merchandising displays to a partnership with the AI-powered Clockwork manicure machine

Jordi Martin-Consuegra, the deputy CEO and president at North America Avolta and another participant on the AMAC panel, notes that the adoption of new technology like Amazon’s Just Walk Out self-checkout system, QR codes and mobile pay has already “been embraced” by the traveling public. Airports are now in a “second wave” of leveraging AI’s capability, he adds, noting that Avolta has been exploring collaborations with various technology startups on potential tools to implement in their concepts. “We’re seeing very exciting stuff, for instance, in terms of conversational technology,” says Martin-Consuegra. “We’re trying to build our own large language models with all the information we have about stores, and offer it in a ChatGPT format to us, to our managers, restaurants and stores, so we can tell them in the morning: ‘Hey, these are the three things you need to worry about today: you have a problem with these products that are usually best-sellers … go check out what’s happening,’” says Martin Consuegra. “We’re piloting this solution

to assist our people around the business better.” Avolta is also working on AI tools around commercial excellence solutions like basket analytics and tools that identify optimal store inventory based on customer demographics, says Martin-Consuegra. AI solutions can also be leveraged to help ACDBE concessionaires in the RFP process, experts add, both in systems that can detect bias within the selection process and through tools that ACDBEs can use to power their RFP preparation. Using AI tools “could make those groups more competitive in the [RFP] process,” says Paradies Lagardère’s Harland, “and it goes back to the accessibility of information, the speed of information. If I was a smaller business with fewer resources, this could be something that boosts the opportunity and increases access [...] and will help them drive a result.” And as for the fear around AI replacing people? AI should “enhance what you do, not detract from or replace human capital,” says Jenkins, emphasizing that employees should be dealt in as stakeholders in the AI integration process.

“I’m bringing these points to the table – I’m talking about some of this technology [to employees], I’m not just testing it or rolling it out,” says Jenkins. “No matter how good the technology is, if employees aren’t brought in from day one, they will also kill it.” Harland believes that a fear that companies will lose the human touch is affecting the speed of [AI] adoption in airports overall. The team at Paradies Lagardère believes “there are just things that humans have to do, and we will make sure that that continues, but the use of technology overall – and the use of AI in particular – maybe will allow us to redeploy resources to where we actually need more of that human touch.” Experts like Jenkins agree, saying that to maximize the customer experience, airport and concessions staff must take the risk of forging ahead with technology still in development. “Technology shifts and this industry shifts, and you’re going to have to shift,” says Jenkins. “You need to be agile enough to pivot when necessary.”

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AX NEWS SEPTEMBER 2024