THE AI INTERVIEW It’ s very scary, but it’ s the best feedback you can ever get when you’ re building a product.”
Those shifts have exposed practical gaps, including how staff respond when a product is out of stock, and have inspired new tools such as handheld devices that suggest alternatives to colleagues in real time.
Kingfisher is also testing an in-ear assistant for store colleagues, built on an internal orchestration system called Athena, which coordinates multiple AI agents across the business. Mohsen adds:“ Our colleagues in store can just talk to Athena and ask,‘ do we sell this?’, or check the nearest store that has it. It removes a lot of friction, though sometimes the fix isn’ t AI at all, just common sense.”
Why trust takes longer than tech Mohsen has previously stated that“ technology can be bought, but trust can be earned”, and is unequivocal about what separates the two.
“ Complying with what a customer asks is the technology part, and that’ s becoming a commodity,” says Mohsen.“ Five years ago, only Netflix did personalisation well. Today, everybody does it.”
What is harder to replicate, he states, is consistency – the quality that turns a single successful transaction into lasting confidence in a brand.“ It’ s not about one order going right,” Mohsen goes on.“ When customers consistently see that whatever they ask for happens correctly, that’ s when trust builds. If something goes wrong, we have to be accountable rather than blaming the AI agent.” aimagazine. com 25