S04E05 - Isabelle Allen & Mary Portas

So let me just pivot a little bit and talk about technology, because I don't think we can talk about retail without technology at the moment.

And I'm really curious, based on your background, where you sit on the human versus bots debate and whether you think that we're heading towards A future where, for example, your smart wardrobe could talk to your shopping assistant who then pulls together a personalized capsule wardrobe for you, maybe based on the latest spring-summer collection and your preferences, and maybe even in the very near future make the purchase for you.

What's your vision of that world going forward?

This is it's moving very fast.

And I think we will see this this mix of digital and physical is always going to be an interplay between the two.

And it depends on what you're selling.

I mean, one of the things that I always talk to businesses about, and I think the really big question that they have to ask themselves at this time is, who do you want to be in the age of intelligence? Who do you as a brand want to be? And understanding the touch points and how important those touch points.

It's not just on...

These bots can actually be terrible or fabulous, right? But it's knowing when to play them in the customer journey.

And I always go back to this, and I think we sometimes forget, the remembering that the role of technology in the early days was to humanize and liberate the human spirit.

When you go back, the design of technology was done with color.

and joy and the way that the music was brought through.

It was to liberate the human spirit.

So I always say to people, when you're using technology in your business, you know, really it has to be done with human judgment.

And human judgment and creativity amplified by AI or digital.

That to me is human judgment, creativity.

It can't come up with what you know instinctively as a great business leader or a retailer.

So you have to make those judgments and then know where to put it into your business.

And you can see where this will work really well often in businesses that know how to nail that and integrate it properly into their business.

And many times, you know, we buy and it's been extraordinarily good.

I mean, there's lots of work on AI being done on personal styling.

And I think, you know, when you look at the Internet and what we've done, who'd have thought that the beauty industry would be able to have grown so fundamentally? through digital AI and makeup sessions.

I mean, you know, so many kids just, it's like TV shows they're watching.

So it's extraordinary, you know, who'd have thought that through fashion? You know, I remember years ago sitting with Karl Lagerfeld and he was saying to me, nobody will ever buy fashion online.

It's about touch and connection.