{"id":4400,"date":"2026-09-12T14:35:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:35:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4400"},"modified":"2026-09-12T14:35:44","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:35:44","slug":"the-worlds-largest-health-and-beauty-retailer-says-ai-will-make-shopping-more-human-not-less","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4400","title":{"rendered":"The world’s largest health and beauty retailer says AI will make shopping ‘more human, not less’"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

The CEO of the world\u2019s largest health and beauty retailer is pushing back against using AI to shrink headcount, arguing that the technology should be used to upgrade human work instead of replacing it.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cIs it really that, with AI, we\u2019re going to cut out 30% of our workforce? Or\u2026 are we going to increase the quality of our people\u2019s intelligence?\u201d Malina Ngai, Group CEO of AS Watson, said at the Fortune Leaders Forum on Sept. 8.<\/p>\n

Companies, particularly in the tech sector, have laid off tens of thousands of employees this year as they pivot towards AI. Oracle, for example, cut 21,000 jobs, or roughly 13% of its workforce, over the past year.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Instead, Ngai\u2014who previously led AS Watson\u2019s digital transformation and expansion of its online commerce offerings\u2014argued the retailer is pushing a \u201chuman-AI partnership\u201d strategy. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou should bring the AI assistant with you to work. It helps you to think faster and smarter,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since the strategy launched last October, employee engagement scores have \u201cjumped up a lot,\u201d she said, as staff spend more time in face-to-face interactions rather than facing a screen. The company pairs that with a \u201ccustomer love score\u201d which Ngai said keeps rising as store staff are freed to serve customers. \u201cThis is not the usual way that people would measure AI,\u201d she acknowledged.<\/p>\n

Ngai argued AI is an opportunity to change how retail itself works. \u201cIt\u2019s the first time we are able to look into how we reinvent the model so that we don\u2019t just focus on processes,\u201d she said. \u201cGoing forward, I think retail is going to become more human, not less.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Her thoughts are echoed by others in the retail sector: In May, Costco CEO Ron Vachris insisted that AI was \u201celevating\u201d workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Founded in 1841 as a pharmacy in the then-British colony of Hong Kong, the company now encompasses over 17,000 outlets across 31 different markets, making it the world\u2019s largest health and beauty retailer by store count. The Hong Kong conglomerate is reportedly planning to list the unit in both Hong Kong and London, with reports suggesting a valuation of around $30 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Greater automation is changing AS Watson in surprising ways, too. Ngai recounted a visit two months ago to a warehouse in Foshan, about 120 kilometers from Hong Kong. In a typical warehouse, some 80% of workers are men because of the heavy lifting. With robots now doing that work, 62% of the workforce at the Foshan site is female. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat was something that really positively surprised me\u2014how technology can also bring more diversity in the company,\u201d Ngai said.<\/p>\n

The warehouse points to her bigger argument: AI reshapes a business when it\u2019s used to rethink old assumptions, not just to speed up what\u2019s already being done.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest risk for all leaders with this type of AI technology is: We [use] AI to improve today\u2019s processes,\u201d she warned. \u201cBasically, you get a version of yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#worlds #largest #health #beauty #retailer #shopping #human<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The CEO of the world\u2019s largest… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6316,2125,886,7380,1263,2580,2495,6318,2057,2044],"class_list":["post-4400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance-news","tag-beauty","tag-fortune-leaders-forum","tag-health","tag-hong-kong","tag-human","tag-largest","tag-retail","tag-retailer","tag-shopping","tag-worlds"],"yoast_head":"\nThe world's largest health and beauty retailer says AI will make shopping 'more human, not less' - Finance News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.vaultinsider.top\/?p=4400\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"zh_CN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The world's largest health and beauty retailer says AI will make shopping 'more human, not less' - 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