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Every time you talk more about me you give me more merits to achieve more business 😎😎 #business #negocios #mentesmilionarias #emprender #Appls (en Tijuana, Baja California)

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Day 23 - Juicy #inktober2017

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The Downlow

Try as I might to find newsy topics that don’t include the two most famous letters, some days it seems that everything I find that is interesting and relevant includes them anyway. I give up. But then again, maybe I should be happy because I have not had a shortage of topics lately, and today is somewhat different from all the others.

Whereas we have looked at a slew of forward-facing applications of AI, and recently, some back-of-house applications, today we look at a company that has married the two faces into a pair of apps that do the same thing, but for different user groups.

Say hello to Mylow, the AI assistant at Lowe’s. First off, this is a very clever name, maybe even more so than Patty at Burger King. The customer side is straightforward; the employee side uses Mylow Companion, but the two are intended to be complementary.

If there is one retail category that brings in a wide variety of customers, from quite possibly zero skill level to professional, it is home improvement. From weekend DIYers to full-time plumbers, carpenters, and electricians, Lowe’s sells all the things that go into houses and buildings, ranging from already constructed to sprouting out of the ground.

The only problem, as noted, is that some customers have little or no experience. In other cases, employees, who supposedly would know all of the different types and sizes of fasteners, paints, wires, and so forth, also have questions. The typical Lowe’s has 40,000 SKUs, but in the online world, they list more than two million. All you have to do is ponder the fastener aisle and all the varietals. It can be mind boggling, and makes navigating a supermarket a lot more palatable.

Better yet, the app has been improved to include Spanish. English may be our official language these days, but it does not alter the fact that many people speak Spanish only, or it is their primary language. Good on Lowe’s for recognizing this.

DIY has long presented difficulties for questioners. Rare is the day you would ever pull aside a grocery stocker with questions about the calorie content, ingredients, and so forth, of an item. But in the DIY world? You’ve got questions; we’ve got answers. Sound familiar? Radio Shack actually used this phrase in 1994 in the electronics realm, but it is far more applicable to DIY. Note where Radio Shack is—and isn’t— today.

Mylow has the ability to serve the different customer classes quite well, from what might be considered rookie questions, to complicated ones like order quantities and delivery dates, for example, that a full-time tradesperson or contractor might need to know. It is the scalability and flexibility of the app that makes this one a winner.

When Mylow and Mylow Companion are viewed together, it shows a company dedicated to improving both the customer experience as well as the efficiency of its associates. As we have seen thus far, the biggest problem has been gaining adoption, and for Lowe’s, that includes both customers and associates. Being bilingual is a huge help, but there could still be resistance.

I recently reported that only 11% of Americans say they use AI, but I have been thinking about this a lot. I am convinced the adoption rate is significantly under-reported, primarily because—and this is my speculation—many people do not even realize they have been using AI for a long time. If you use Siri, Alexa, Google Maps, Google, the Apple iOS, and others, you have been using it for years. You just didn’t know it. Our friend AI has been running in the background all the time. It’s just that the—shall we say it—less-educated among us are not very aware of their surroundings and the tech advances around them.

The vocal resistance has become disconcerting to the point that I just scroll by any social media news item I see about AI, because I know the naysayers are going to pounce on it, just like they do when confronted with evidence of climate change and all the other touch points that can trigger people. I’ll leave it to you to add to that list. You know what I’m talking about.

To use a basketball metaphor, I am calling the Mylow apps a swish from behind the arc. It almost makes me want to start a DIY project. Well, maybe in a couple of weeks. I’ve got Spring Break to do first. I’m taking my work with me, but at least it’ll be a significant change of venue. Google Maps, get on this.

Dr “Y’all Have A Great One!” Gerlich

Audio Blog

#marketing #appls #AI #Lowe's