Preview: Smart Search

When it comes to searching for products online, consumers are often limited to typing in their desires into a search box. But sometimes, we don't know what we want – or don’t have the words to describe it. That is where artificially intelligent programs are stepping in – helping consumers to find what they want in a more intuitive way. 

Mona, for instance, is a personal assistant app that goes on shopping missions, searching for items on the users’ behalf based on criteria such as size, colour and price. The North Face is also experimenting with smarter searches, using IBM Watson technology to create a more natural means to the perfect jacket in its XPS microsite.

‘In the next five years, we will interact with AI-based assistants instead of search engines, browsers or mobile apps,’ says Orkun Atik, co-founder and CEO of Mona. ‘I think that an interactive, truly personalised and dialogue-based assistant for customer experience will become the shopping interface of the future.’