Driven by their vision to create a better everyday life for people, Ingka Group | IKEA is transforming into a data driven leader in life at home. Their ambition is to lead a movement promoting trustworthy use of data and algorithms.
In our latest Q&A, we spoke with Francesco Marzoni, the Global Data & Analytics Officer for Ingka Group | IKEA to explore how AI is shaping retail and Ingka Group | IKEA’s approach to responsible deployment.
Penelope Sosa: What AI-driven technologies are being explored at IKEA to enhance the customer experience, both online and in-store?
Francesco Marzoni: We are constantly innovating to meet our customers’ needs and dreams about life at home, exploring new ways for customers to interact with us, online and offline. Our goal, though, is not just to innovate, but to do it responsibility. This is especially true in our approach to AI. One example is how we explore AI to democratise home interior design, by providing personalised recommendations, smart home solutions and augmented reality applications. By combining our deep knowledge and passion for life at home with the latest developments in spatial computing and AI, we make our customers their own interior designers. Another example is in fulfilment, and more specifically order orchestration and capacity planning. Every 5 seconds, a single order is processed by an AI model that identifies the fastest and cheapest fulfilment unit for that order – so we get your BILLY bookcase into your living room in the quickest way!
PS: What steps is IKEA taking to ensure the responsible deployment of AI across its global operations?
FM: We committed to responsible AI back in 2020 to ensure we translate our IKEA values to AI. We are proud to be recognized as one of the first companies that adopted a Digital Ethics policy and as an early adopter of the EU AI Act. We’re focusing on creating AI governance frameworks that are modularized (eg, risk approach, risk assessment process, ways of working). Their structures are defined by our company values rather than by a piece of legislation. This makes it easier to adjust and adapt to AI development and changes in legislation while maintaining a structured cohesive approach. We have a repository of our AI systems with clear ownership. Our supplier agreements require our partners to get our approval for AI use, ensuring transparency. We also invest in company-wide AI literacy programs to empower and equip co-workers with the right knowledge and skills needed to navigate the world of AI confidently and responsibly.
PS: What challenges do you face in balancing AI-driven automation with maintaining meaningful roles for workers?
FM: Changes in technology will continue to challenge all organisations to positively adapt, and as such, IKEA embraces technology in a human-centric way. Our approach to AI is guided in principles of fairness, transparency, and co-worker engagement. We make a crucial distinction between jobs and tasks when looking at how AI affects the workforce. AI is often more effective at automating individual actions or steps within a job than at automating the job entirely. And that is what we are looking to do at IKEA, automating specific tasks to help our customers get quicker results, and in turn support our co-workers at their jobs. We need to use AI to empower our co-workers and augment their capabilities and decision-making. AI is not a replacement for human intelligence, creativity, and empathy.
PS: Just for fun, what was the last thing you used AI for?
FM: I have a database with my historical tennis results (I am still a competitive player in the senior tours). It used to feed just a personalized dashboard (which I keep updating still to date) but now it feeds also a Conversational Analytics engine to which I ask alerts on my breakthrough results or performance patterns vs specific categories of opponents or surface. I had my last official match yesterday so this morning I had a chat with my AI tennis agent 🙂