Behind the scenes

Everybody loves AI – product sales up 24%

20/2/2024

Translation: Patrik Stainbrook

Online shoppers love AI. Artificial intelligence makes cars smarter, houses safer and even helps us live healthier lives. Sales figures for smartwatches with health functions, cameras with intelligent image recognition, smart speakers and automatic translators (dictation devices with an AI component) have recently risen significantly. These categories at online retailer Galaxus have grown by 24 per cent year-on-year in the last twelve months.

AI products are booming. One of many reasons? The European Commission recently felt compelled to create cross-border rules for these technologies with the Artificial Intelligence Act. The products shouldn’t become dangerous (article in German). Fortunately, we’re still a little way away from evil intelligence threatening humanity, such as Skynet (Terminator) or the Matrix – hopefully. But the progress made in recent years is remarkable. We let Chat GPT calculate, think and write for us. Midjourney creates images at the touch of a button (MS-Paint too, by the way). Smartphone apps correct errors in photos with the Eraser function and fill in gaps unnoticed.

Here are some products that have changed the most in recent years as a result of AI developments. Wristwatches now monitor our pulse, blood pressure, sleep and more. Vacuum cleaners have learned to clean each home individually using image recognition software, and loudspeakers follow our commands, adapting to us thanks to Siri, Cortana, Alexa and co. Navigation systems, network cameras and dictation devices have also evolved thanks to AI and are helping us using features that weren’t available to the average Joe a few years ago.

This is all going down well in online retail. Sales in the six Galaxus categories smartwatches, smart speakers, robot vacuum cleaners, navigation devices, network cameras and translators (dictation devices) have risen by an average of 24.02% across all countries in the last twelve months. Smartphones are deliberately excluded, seeing they do so much.

The sales dates apply to all seven Galaxus shops plus digitec.ch. Network cameras recorded the strongest growth at 38.75%, followed by dictation devices (35.67%) and smart speakers (21.69%). Sales in these categories were already very high in 2021. However, they’ve risen again significantly in the last twelve months compared to both 2022 and 2021, in the EU and in Switzerland.

Classic devices with new functions

What can the newest devices already do? Galaxus colleague Michelle Brändle recently tested the Apple Watch Series 9. The watch now also offers Siri in offline mode, and the watch has intelligent health functions. Michelle writes: «As a woman, I’m naturally curious to find out about my predicted cycle. I enter my period in the cycle app – as well as any symptoms before, during and after my time of the month. It’s incredibly practical, as the predictions get more and more accurate over time.»

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Translation tools are no longer only available in browsers (e.g. DeepL), but are also being integrated into more and more dictation devices. Recently with image recognition too. This way, we can read the foreign-language menu in a restaurant or the description next to a museum painting while on vacation with a quick pen scan, for example.

Dictaphones

Lexibook QUICKTIONARY The Artificial Intelligence powered Instant Talking Translator Pen Scanner

Audio translations or synthetic voices and computer-generated videos, of course, already exist and open the door to fake videos (or deep fakes). With video tools such as HeyGen, for example, anyone can suddenly show themselves as a foreign language professional and present themselves in numerous tongues. Deep fakes of celebrities are already in circulation. Fortunately, work is already being done to combat this. Tools that recognise fakes are already in use, as can be read at Galaxus:

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We at Galaxus are also experimenting with artificial intelligence in the company, for internal evaluations among other things. But in future, customers could see reviews summarised by an AI externally too, for example. This way, you wouldn’t have to scan 500 reviews, but could benefit from a summary:

What do you think about artificial intelligence? Does Galaxus need more products in its range? What would you want? Do you buy products because they have AI functions? Or is this all nonsense and you think AI is just a trendy term? Are you pro-human or pro-machine/Cylon as soon as war breaks out?

Header image: Midjourney

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Daniel Borchers

Senior Communications Manager

Daniel.Borchers@galaxus.de

A soft spot for good series, loud music, science fiction and (second division) football. As PR Manager, I am available to answer journalists' questions about Galaxus and honest e-commerce.

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