KBot
Oracle platinum partner Magia Solutions has injected life into to retailer Kmart Australia's new augmented reality and artificial intelligence platform.
Known as KBot, the tool used AR technology from Melbourne-based agency Valis that helps Kmart customers see how products would look in their own environment in 3D.
The conversational artificial intelligence (AI) element is powered by Oracle’s Digital Assistant and provides information about product dimensions, features and recommends complementary products based on previously viewed products.
The Kmart, Oracle and Valis teams were supported by Magia Solutions, which conducted the implementation, bringing all the technologies together.
Social distancing and lock-down restrictions meant that the majority of work on the three-week project was done remotely using online collaboration tools.
“Our customer-centric approach was pivotal in the way we collaborated with our valued partners when designing the mobile experience to maximise the technology enablers like augmented reality and AI," Kmart head of digital, Melissa Wong said. "This has truly changed the way we engaged our customers,”
The KBot solution integrates with Kmart’s existing Oracle Cloud CX digital marketing technology, and the native voice capability in the Oracle Digital Assistant converts speech to text.
“Digital assistants, and artificial intelligence more broadly, have reached mainstream adoption and are providing new and exciting brand experiences to customers,” Oracle A/NZ vice president and regional managing director Cherie Ryan said.
“The KBot is a truly innovative experience, seamlessly blending AI and AR to create an engagement that is both fun and functional. By integrating next-gen shopping with traditional channels such as email, Kmart is delivering futuristic engagement to customers with its brand while simultaneously driving demand for its product range.”
Valis co-founder and CEO Luke Cameron said product based AR, when done well and made easily accessible, can strengthen consumer trust, provide a memorable interaction with a brand, and importantly - deliver ROI.
"To be the first retailer to bring a combined AR and AI experience to market really shows how much they have been listening to consumer trends and are willing to go that extra experimental step to deliver a really unique customer experience," he said.
In May, Kmart Group embarked on the 'holy grail' of infrastructure projects with the help of Infosys and DXC along with Amazon Web Services (AWS) in shifting its mainframe applications into the AWS cloud.
At the time, Kmart Group CTO Michael Fagan said its merchandise, inventory, and supply chain applications currently run on its mainframe infrastructure, describing it as the "heart and soul of any retailer."
