This month we’re asking retailers: Are you using AI?
Dreamland Bedding Centre
Until recently, we had intentionally refrained from incorporating AI into our operations. During my studies, I made a conscious decision to avoid using AI, as I was determined to rely solely on my own analytical capabilities. I recognised that AI, while a powerful tool, could have become a crutch—one that might undermine the authenticity and originality of my work. However, since completing my studies, my stance on AI has evolved. I recently attended an Innovate UK event focused on integrating AI into business practices, which highlighted the significant potential for efficiency gains and strategic insights.
As a result, we are now in the early stages of exploring AI adoption within our organisation. Thus far, we’ve identified several areas where AI could add genuine value, including route planning, forecasting, and marketing analysis—all of which have demonstrated clear validity. Conversely, when reviewing AI’s application to point-of-sale creation, we found limitations. Much of the output consisted of generic, repetitive information, which offered little in terms of meaningful insights. This has made us more discerning about where we deploy AI, ensuring it is used to enhance efficiency rather than generate surface-level content. While we remain in the exploratory phase, AI is becoming an increasingly valuable tool for driving operational efficiency and supporting data-driven decision-making. We are committed to leveraging it strategically, ensuring it complements rather than replaces employee expertise.
Furniture World
Yes, we are – great for getting ‘stock items’ into room sets for the website and marketing in general.
Home World – Mattress & Bed Centres
We have used AI a little bit, when doing online adverts. The AI helped word our advert & description more professionally. Apart from that we have not had a need for it, no doubt this will change as AI develops. We will keep an eye on it.
Harrison & Brown Furniture
Since I discovered AI, after being a bit scared of using it to be honest, I love it! I use it for my marketing, emails, letters and research and anything else I can think of to ask it a question. Whatever I use from AI, I do always make changes to make it sound more like me but it’s outstanding how much it can do. I think I’ve only touched the surface on what can be achieved with it but it’s a learning curve for me.
MattressOnline
Mattress Online is a tech-focused company so we’ve been early adopters of AI and remain keen to push the current state to its limits, to understand what it can and can’t do. It’s very important to know which tasks it’s suitable for and where it fails to give you what you need. One of the key challenges for businesses is knowing how to use AI so that it’s predictable and reliable. It’s not fully there yet, but improves with each new model that’s released. Soon everyone will have access to AI as a go to tool for problem solving or completing laborious tasks as well as helping creativity.
Linthorpe Beds
We sometimes delve into using AI to process imagery quickly when needed. However, when it comes to our customers, we believe in being 100% authentic. We don’t want customers speaking to a bot when they have a bed-related query—we’d much rather offer real, personal service from our expert team. That said, as AI and the modern world continue to evolve, we may explore its potential in our marketing strategies in the future when necessary.
