Glossary
The plain-English AI glossary for retail businesses
Cut through the vendor jargon. Short, clear definitions of the AI terms you’ll hear in pitches, demos, and trade press — written for operators, not engineers.
See these terms in one real shop
The AI-assisted shop ecosystem
How the layers behind these terms work together in an actual shop.
Customer recognition & camera (PDPA)
Computer vision and personalization in practice, plus what Singapore’s PDPA requires.
AI staff assistant & attendance
Chatbots, LLMs, and RAG — shown as a working assistant a shop team actually uses.
F&B
Terms for restaurants and food retailers
Menu Engineering
Use sales and margin data to design menus that nudge customers to your most profitable dishes.
Read more →Sentiment Analysis
AI that reads reviews and messages and tells you whether customers are happy, unhappy, or neutral.
Read more →Review & Feedback Analysis
AI reads every review across Google, GrabFood, and Foodpanda and surfaces what’s recurring — so nothing slips by.
Read more →Retail (general)
Core retail AI terms
Demand Forecasting
Predict how much you’ll sell — by product, location, and time period — using your data.
Read more →Recommendation Engine
Suggests products to a customer based on their behavior and similar customers’ purchases.
Read more →Personalization
Tailor what each customer sees — products, offers, messaging — based on their behavior.
Read more →Customer Lifetime Value
Total revenue you expect from a customer over their entire relationship with you.
Read more →Computer Vision
AI that interprets images and video — recognizing products, counting customers, reading shelves.
Read more →Inventory Optimization
Decide how much of each item to hold, where, and when to reorder — continuously.
Read more →Recommendation & Cross-Sell
AI suggests the right add-on or accessory based on what similar customers bought — lifting basket value.
Read more →Retail · Electronics
Terms for electronics retailers
Cold-Start Problem
What happens when an AI system has no history yet — new products, customers, or stores.
Read more →Dynamic Pricing
Adjust prices in near real-time based on demand, competitor moves, and inventory.
Read more →Retail · Clothing
Terms for clothing retailers
SKU-Level Forecasting
Predict demand for each individual variant — sizes, colors, styles — not just category totals.
Read more →Virtual Try-On
AI overlays clothing, eyewear, or accessories on you (via camera or photo) before you buy.
Read more →Visual Product Search
Shoppers upload an outfit photo and AI surfaces the closest matches in your catalog — turning inspiration into orders.
Read more →Retail · Education
Terms for education retailers
Adaptive Learning
AI that personalizes a learner’s path — adjusting difficulty, topics, and pacing.
Read more →Content Tagging
AI auto-tags books and resources by subject, level, and topic — making your catalog searchable without manual cataloguing.
Read more →SME · Core AI concepts
Concepts every operator should know
Large Language Model
The AI behind ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini — what it is and what it can do. Singapore’s AI Strategy covers how LLMs fit into the national framework.
Read more →GPU & VRAM
The chip that does AI’s heavy lifting, and the memory spec that decides which models your machine can run.
Read more →Generative AI
AI that creates new content — text, images, code — instead of just analyzing existing data. The PDPC Model AI Governance Framework guides responsible use in Singapore.
Read more →Chatbot vs AI Assistant
Old rule-based bots vs modern context-aware assistants — night-and-day difference.
Read more →Automation vs AI
When you need AI vs when plain automation is cheaper and more reliable. IMDA SMEs Go Digital helps Singapore businesses choose the right tools.
Read more →Lead Qualification
AI screens incoming enquiries, scores intent, and flags the hot ones — so you only spend time on real opportunities.
Read more →Document Extraction
AI reads invoices, receipts, and forms, pulls out the key fields, and routes them — no manual data entry.
Read more →Home Business
Terms for solo and home-based sellers
Conversational Commerce
Selling through messaging — WhatsApp, Instagram DMs, chat — with AI handling the routine.
Read more →Need help applying these?
From definitions to deployment
Knowing the terms is one thing. Putting them to work in your business is another. We help you do both.
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