Amazon.com Inc and Walmart Inc are leading the way for artificial intelligence investment among top retail companies according to our analysis of a range of GlobalData data.
Artificial intelligence has become one of the key themes in the retail sector of late, with companies hiring for increasingly more roles, making more deals, registering more patents and mentioning it more often in company filings.
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These themes, of which artificial intelligence is one, are best thought of as “any issue that keeps a CEO awake at night”, and by tracking and combining them, it becomes possible to ascertain which companies are leading the way on specific issues and which are dragging their heels.
According to GlobalData analysis, Amazon.com Inc is one of the artificial intelligence leaders in a list of high-revenue companies in the retail industry, having advertised for 27,062 positions in artificial intelligence, made three deals related to the field, filed zero patents and mentioned artificial intelligence eight times in company filings between January 2020 and June 2021.
Our analysis classified three companies as Most Valuable Players – or MVPs – due to their high number of new jobs, deals, patents and company filings mentions in the field of artificial intelligence. An additional nine companies are classified as Market Leaders and zero are Average Players. Five more companies are classified as Late Movers due to their relatively lower levels of jobs, deals, patents and company filings in artificial intelligence.
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By GlobalDataFor the purpose of this analysis, we’ve ranked top companies in the retail sector on each of the four metrics relating to artificial intelligence: jobs, deals, patents and company filings. The best-performing companies – the ones ranked at the top across all or most metrics – were categorised as MVPs while the worst performers – companies ranked at the bottom of most indicators – were classified as Late Movers.
Amazon.com Inc is spearheading the artificial intelligence hiring race, advertising for 27,062 new jobs between January 2020 and June 2021. The company reached peak hiring in March 2020, when it listed 2,169 new job ads related to artificial intelligence.
Walmart Inc followed Amazon.com Inc as the second most proactive artificial intelligence employer, advertising for 1,202 new positions. CVS Health Corp was third with 785 new job listings.
When it comes to deals, JD.com Inc leads with three new artificial intelligence deals announced from January 2020 to June 2021. The company was followed by Amazon.com Inc with three deals and Tesco Plc with one.
GlobalData's Financial Deals Database covers hundreds of thousands of M&A contracts, private equity deals, venture finance deals, private placements, IPOs and partnerships, and it serves as an indicator of economic activity within a sector.
One of the most innovative retail companies in recent months was Walmart Inc, having filed 10 patent applications related to artificial intelligence since the beginning of last year.
GlobalData collects patent filings from 100+ counties and jurisdictions. These patents are then tagged according to the themes they relate to, including artificial intelligence, based on specific keywords and expert input. The patents are also assigned to a company to identify the most innovative players in a particular field.
Finally, artificial intelligence was a commonly mentioned theme in retail company filings. CVS Health Corp mentioned artificial intelligence eight times in its corporate reports between January 2020 and June 2021.
