FRANCOIS CHAUBARD is the CEO of Focal Systems, a deep learning computer vision company dedicated to helping brick and mortar retail businesses automate their operations. He has helped companies like Walmart, ShopRite, Piggly Wiggly, Good Food Holdings, and Fairway optimize their operations with state-of-the-art deep learning that revolutionizes how stores are run. Chaubard also co-created and taught many courses on AI at Stanford University, including CS229: Machine Learning, CS224D: Deep Learning for NLP, and CS231M: Computer Vision for Mobile.

Introduction: Why You Need This Book as a Retail Leader 1

Section 1 Introduction to the AI Revolution 11

1 How Ai Has Revolutionized Many Other Industries over the Last 20 Years 13

2 The Three Myths of How AI Will Transform Retail 37

3 How AI Will Automate and Optimize Retail 51

4 Level- Setting the AI Doomsday- ism 67

Section 2 AI Theory 75

5 What Is AI? 77

6 From CPUs to GPUs 84

7 Optimization 88

8 Measuring AI Performance 94

9 AI Learning Techniques 100

10 Simulators and AI 111

11 OODA Loops 116

12 Hierarchy of Data Maturity 120

13 A "General Theory for Retail AI" 125

Section 3 Applications of AI in Retail 137

14 The Inefficiencies in Retail Today 139

15 AI for Merchandising 143

16 AI for Inventory, Ordering, and Supply Chain Management 153

17 AI for Replenishment and Labor Management 177

18 AI for Labor Budgets and Scheduling 193

19 AI for E- Commerce and Customer Service 199

20 AI for Warehouse and Distribution Centers 212

21 AI for Checkout 227

22 AI for Pricing and Promotion 254

23 Other AI Use Cases 263

Section 4 Implementation 269

24 Create your "AI Strategy and Road Map" 271

25 Buying vs. Building AI 285

26 How to Run a Proof of Concept Bake- off Effectively 292

27 Transitioning to a Fact- based, Data- driven Culture 303

About the Author 309

Index 311