AS Watson CEO Says AI Can Make Retail “More Human”

The CEO of the world's largest health and beauty retailer is pushing back against using artificial intelligence to reduce headcount, arguing that the technology should improve human work rather than replace it.

AS Watson Group CEO Malina Ngai says the retailer is pursuing a “human-AI partnership” rather than using artificial intelligence primarily to cut jobs. [Photo: AS Watson]

“Is it really that, with AI, we’re going to cut out 30% of our workforce? Or ... are we going to increase the quality of our people’s intelligence?” AS Watson Group CEO Malina Ngai said at the Fortune Leaders Forum in Macau.

Companies, particularly in the technology sector, have eliminated tens of thousands of jobs as they reorganize around AI. 

Fortune cited Oracle as having cut about 21,000 jobs, or roughly 13% of its workforce, over the past year.

Ngai, who previously led AS Watson's digital transformation and expansion of its online-commerce operations, said the retailer is instead pursuing a “human-AI partnership” strategy.

“You should bring the AI assistant with you to work. It helps you to think faster and smarter,” she said.

The strategy was launched last October.

Ngai said employee engagement scores have risen significantly as workers spend more time interacting face-to-face with customers instead of being tied to computer screens.

AS Watson also tracks what it calls a “customer love score,” which Ngai said has continued to increase as store employees have more time to serve shoppers.

Ngai said AI gives retailers an opportunity to rethink how work is organized rather than simply automate existing processes.

“Going forward, I think retail is going to become more human, not less,” she said.

AS Watson operates more than 17,000 stores across 31 markets, making it the world's largest health and beauty retailer by store count, according to Fortune. The company dates its origins to a pharmacy founded in Hong Kong in 1841.

The retailer is also using automation in its warehouses. Ngai cited a facility in Foshan, China, where robots have taken over some heavy-lifting tasks, changing the gender composition of the workforce there.