Delve podcast: New Normal: How AI Is Reshaping Post-Pandemic Retail with Warut Khern-am-nuai

On Delve’s The "New Normal" podcast series, Professor Warut Khern-am-nuai from the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University joins journalist Dave Kaufman to discuss the data behind pandemic buying and how retailers can use an Artificial Intelligence framework to react in real time to unexpected fluctuations in consumer purchasing.

Khern-am-nuai expands on his earlier research on pandemic panic buying to examine the retail industry throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and look to the future of AI in retail, including how one small policy change by retailers could have avoided empty shelves in the first place.

“If we were to develop the predictive model to predict panic-buying behaviour, it's not going to work as well as intended,” says Khern-am-nuai. “Instead of trying to predict panic-buying behaviour, we detect the panic-buyer behaviour pattern in real time. When it occurs at any store in Canada, we can detect that as soon as five minutes after it happens.”

For more insights, listen to the full interview with Professor Warut Khern-am-nuai on the Delve podcast.

You can subscribe to the Delve podcast on all major podcast platforms, including Apple podcasts and Spotify.

Bringing Insight to the Surface

Founded in 2019, Delve is the official thought leadership publication of McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management. Under the direction of Professor Saku Mantere, inaugural Editor-in-Chief, Delve features the latest in management thinking that stretches perspectives, sparks new ideas, and brings clarity to decision-makers at all levels and across sectors.