Demand forecasting, planning automation, schedule optimization, improved employee experience… AI is reshaping retail workforce management from different perspectives, defining new rules of the game.

Retail is an industry in constant evolution, where the obligation to innovate and reinvent itself is continuously present. This has always been the case, due to the need to anticipate and respond to changing consumer demands, and to adapt quickly to emerging social and economic trends. 

In the current context, this retail transformation inevitably involves the adoption of new technologies, particularly those based on AI. Solutions such as Orquest, intelligent in-store team planning software, provide retailers with cutting-edge AI-powered tools to help them respond to today’s challenges. 

How AI is reshaping retail workforce management

The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) into processes and workflows is already a reality and is changing the way retail is done, especially in stores. It is transforming operations and the customer experience, as well as the day-to-day lives of employees themselves. The latter is especially important in an industry with high turnover and absenteeism rates. 

Through demand forecasting, task automation, and data-driven optimization, AI is reshaping retail workforce management as we know it. It makes it possible to optimize the cost and efficiency of your operations while responding to the growing demands of customers and employees.  

As a result, more and more retailers are embracing the transformative power of AI in the way they plan store operations and teams. On the one hand, it facilitates the work of employees, taking into account their needs and preferences, improving their work experience and engagement; on the other hand, it makes their management simpler and more efficient, aligning it with business objectives and customer expectations. 

Let’s see how AI is reshaping retail workforce management:

Scheduling automation. AI simplifies the entire scheduling process, taking into account factors such as demand trends, associate availability, and store needs to automatically generate efficient schedules with minimal errors.

Forecasting staffing needs. AI can predict the optimal number of associates needed at any given time by analyzing team performance, sales trends, and other metrics. This ensures that the right people are always in the store, avoiding overstaffing and understaffing. Based on this prediction, AI can also develop a hiring strategy in advance to anticipate workloads, save time, and adjust labor costs.

Matching the employee profile. In addition to availability, AI-based schedules take into account the suitability of each employee’s skills and training level for the tasks to be performed to ensure the best service. They also take into account their preferences and requests for better team satisfaction.

Improve the customer experience. “Orquest helps us predict more efficiently when our customers will come, so we can improve their experience,” says Dario Acuña, sales director at Kiabi Spain. For example, Orquest’s AI accurately forecasts demand to efficiently cover the store and place associates where they will have the greatest impact. As a result, customers get the attention they need, when they need it, resulting in greater satisfaction and improved service quality. 

Regulatory compliance. Another way AI is reshaping retail workforce management is through compliance with contracts, agreements, and labor laws. These systems adapt to the conditions that apply to each employee to create schedules that ensure retailers comply with laws and regulations.

Improved decision-making. With AI, it’s possible to track store activity and results in real time to identify areas for improvement, make last-minute changes, and make necessary adjustments to staffing and management. “We can now make strategic, data-driven decisions on a daily basis,” explains Robert Ros, former Director of Operations at McDonald’s Spain, who has been using Orquest’s AI to optimize the planning of his restaurant teams since its inception.

In this way, AI is reshaping retail workforce management and emerging as the way forward to reinvent the shopping experience in today’s context. Store associates are the driving force behind this experience, and AI makes it possible to align their interests with those of customers and businesses.

However, not all technology solutions unlock the full potential of AI as well as Orquest, which has years of experience refining the technology behind its powerful scheduling to meet the day-to-day operational needs of retail stores. Orquest plans the schedules of up to 300 employees simultaneously in three steps: first it predicts store demand, then it calculates the people needed to cover that workload, and finally it creates the most optimal in-store schedule. It does all of this while ensuring compliance with regulations and the adequacy of each associate’s skills, as well as anticipating staffing needs.

In this way, Orquest creates efficient schedules that boost employee performance and drive their motivation for an optimal shopping experience and happy customers after every visit. And it does so for major global industry brands such as Dior, McDonald’s (in 27 countries, including Arcos Dorados), H&M and Kiabi, howing how AI is reshaping retail workforce management.

In short, the adoption of AI is not just a one-off business strategy, it is what is shaping the retail of today and tomorrow, a retail projected into the future, ready to respond to the concerns and demands of the emerging generations. It is up to retailers to make the most of its potential.