Firework, a prominent video commerce and engagement platform, announced the launch of its artificial intelligence (AI)- powered virtual shopping assistant, AVA (AI Virtual Assistant). This innovative tool is designed to revolutionize the eCommerce experience for merchants and customers by transforming online stores into interactive virtual shopping environments. AVA comes when retailers increasingly seek new strategies to boost online sales.
AVA is represented as a digital human avatar and is powered by Firework's proprietary large language model (LLM). The assistant can act as a brand and product expert, providing personalized recommendations and guidance to shoppers based on their purchase history and preferences. This level of personalization is achieved through adaptive intelligence, which allows AVA to learn and adapt over time by gathering information from various sources, including customer questions, feedback, engagement outcomes, and sales data.
To further enhance AVA's capabilities, Firework has entered into a partnership with Google Cloud. This collaboration utilizes Google Cloud's Vertex AI platform to accelerate testing, prototyping, and market initiatives, focusing on developing and training AI and machine learning models. Chris Colyer, head of retail industry partnerships at Google Cloud, expressed excitement about the potential of AI to personalize the online shopping experience in unprecedented ways.
"With AVA, Firework is showing that AI has the ability to humanize and personalize the online shopping experience in ways most never thought possible." said Chris Colyer, Head of Retail Industry Partnerships at Google Cloud. "We're excited to see how our partners such as Firework are utilizing Google Cloud's AI to build impactful tools, and bring tangible value to retailers, empowering them to forge deeper connections with their customers."
We sat down for an exclusive interview with Firework Co-Founder and President Jerry Luk to discuss how the AI platform promises to give e-commerce retailers a competitive edge by creating more engaging and personalized shopping experiences for consumers.
1. Online retailers are always looking for ways to enhance the customer experience. How does Ava improve the shopping journey from a consumer's perspective?
2. Can you walk us through the process of integrating Ava into an existing ecommerce site such as Shopify?
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1. Go into the Firework Portal and click the “AVA” tab
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2. Create your AVA
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3. Click Embed (three dots next to “Publish”)
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4. Copy code and paste onto the website of choice
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5. Click “Publish” on the Firework Business Portal
3. How customizable is Ava for different retail brands, and can it align with various brand personalities?
4. From a retailer's standpoint, what data analytics and insights does Ava offer to help understand customer behavior better?
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Total unique visitors
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Total questions
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Platform/Mobile distributions
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Location heatmap
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Questions and AI answer
5. Cost is a crucial factor for any online retailer. What is the pricing model for implementing Ava?
6. How does Ava handle complex customer queries that might typically require human intervention?
