Online grocery service Instacart just bought cheerily-named Caper AI, which offers AI-powered in-store shopping cart and checkout technology. The system uses object recognition to understand what shoppers have placed in their carts, presumably without judging. It will help both Instacart workers and people buying for themselves – a group that apparently now needs a special label. I vote for “citizen shoppers”.
API-based communications platform Vonage has expanded its scope by buying conversational commerce tech vendor Jumper.ai. The acquired firm lets retailers engage with consumers on chat and social channels. It’s a good illustration of how messaging and ecommerce are increasingly intertwined, if you were looking for one.
TV audience measurement may not be the most fascinating topic ever, but it’s important to some Dear Readers. Those will be interested to learn that NBCUniversal is organizing a forum to explore new measurement products. Participants include major trade groups, agencies, and brands. Motivations include the new TV viewing methods and problems with the once-standard Nielsen ratings service.
Martech keeps taking larger bites out of marketing budgets: 17.3% last year, 19.9% this year, 23.5% next year, and 30.9% five years from now, according to the latest CMO Survey. This despite barely more than half (56.4%) of current tools being used and nearly half (48.8%) of the survey respondents reporting worse-than-expected results. Oddly enough, marketers rate selecting marketing technologies as the thing they do best.