Repositioning retail for the AI era

为人工智能时代重新定位零售业

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping retail, but not in the ways consumers might immediately notice. The biggest transformation may not be flashy virtual try-ons or chatbot shopping assistants, but in how decisions are made behind the scenes: how products surface in search results, how inventory moves through supply chains, how engineers ship code faster, and how retailers respond to customer behavior in real time. 人工智能正在迅速重塑零售业，但其方式并非消费者能立即察觉到的。最大的变革或许并非炫目的虚拟试穿或聊天机器人购物助手，而在于幕后的决策方式：产品如何在搜索结果中呈现、库存如何在供应链中流转、工程师如何更快地交付代码，以及零售商如何实时响应客户行为。

As legacy retailers navigate a fragmented and hyper-competitive landscape, AI is becoming an operating philosophy. At Macy’s, that philosophy is more often defined by what senior director of engineering Murali Murugan describes as an “AI-first” approach. “AI first isn’t about adding intelligence on top,” Murugan says. “It’s about redesigning how decisions happen so the business moves faster and every experience feels more relevant by default.” Rather than layering AI onto existing workflows, Macy’s is embedding intelligence directly into systems that include personalization, search, operational planning, and software development itself. 随着传统零售商在碎片化且竞争激烈的市场中前行，人工智能正成为一种经营哲学。在梅西百货（Macy’s），这种哲学更多地被其工程高级总监 Murali Murugan 所描述的“人工智能优先”（AI-first）方法所定义。“‘人工智能优先’并非在现有基础上叠加智能，”Murugan 说道，“而是要重新设计决策过程，使业务运转更快，并让每一次体验在默认情况下都显得更加贴切。”梅西百货没有将人工智能简单地叠加在现有工作流程之上，而是将智能直接嵌入到包括个性化推荐、搜索、运营规划以及软件开发在内的各个系统中。

The company’s strategy is reflective of a larger shift taking place across retail: moving from isolated AI pilots toward integrated systems designed to compress, as Murugan puts it, “the gap between the signal and the action.” Early efforts focused on narrow, high-impact use cases like search recommendations and customer engagement, where measurable gains in conversion and reduced friction quickly built internal momentum. “Once we established the quick wins, scaling was a business decision, not a technology debate anymore,” he says. 该公司的战略反映了整个零售业正在发生的更大转变：从孤立的人工智能试点转向集成系统，旨在缩短 Murugan 所说的“信号与行动之间的差距”。早期的努力集中在搜索推荐和客户互动等影响范围小但效果显著的用例上，这些领域在转化率方面的可衡量增长和摩擦的减少，迅速建立了内部动力。他说：“一旦我们确立了这些快速获胜的成果，规模化就成了一个商业决策，而不再是技术层面的争论。”

That momentum is now extending into conversational commerce through tools like Ask Macy’s, an AI-powered shopping assistant designed to act more like a personal stylist than a traditional search bar. Whether for a prom, a vacation, or a last-minute event, customers can describe what they need conversationally and receive curated recommendations informed by past purchases, preferences, and context. 这种动力现在正通过“Ask Macy’s”等工具扩展到对话式商务领域。这是一个由人工智能驱动的购物助手，其设计初衷更像是一位私人造型师，而非传统的搜索栏。无论是为了舞会、度假还是临时活动，客户都可以通过对话描述自己的需求，并根据过往购买记录、个人偏好和具体情境获得精选推荐。

Still, the company sees AI as more of an invisible layer augmenting human judgment than a replacement for it. The long-term vision is retail that feels increasingly seamless, adaptive, and personalized, powered by systems customers may never even notice are there. 尽管如此，该公司仍将人工智能视为增强人类判断力的隐形层，而非替代品。其长期愿景是打造一种日益无缝、自适应且个性化的零售体验，而这一切都由客户可能永远不会察觉到的系统在背后支撑。

“The real transformation in this all comes from continuous improvement,” Murugan says. “It’s about learning from the mistakes, quickly adapting to the newer technology standards that are coming into play, timing, and execution which compound into a meaningfully better customer experience.” “这一切真正的变革源于持续改进，”Murugan 说，“关键在于从错误中学习，快速适应不断涌现的新技术标准，并把握时机与执行力，这些因素共同汇聚成了显著提升的客户体验。”