New Way Now: Belk is using gen AI to build its next generation of community

𝗦𝘂𝗺𝗺𝗮𝗿𝘆: Richard Spencer, Chief Information Officer at Belk Department Stores, shares how the department store chain is discovering new innovative ways to connect with its customers. With the help of Google Cloud Consulting, Belk leveraged Google Cloud generative AI to bring the spirit of its brand across all of its marketing content — from product descriptions to email campaigns to website images. 𝗖𝗵𝗮𝗹𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗴𝗲: How can Belk personalize content to engage all of its different types of customers while keeping its brand voice and messaging consistent? 𝗦𝗼𝗹𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: Using Vertex AI, Belk built a new gen AI application that generates high-quality, consistent product details and descriptions for its website and marketing channels. Powered by a model trained to understand the company’s unique brand voice, the app can quickly create product information that reflects the way Belk talks to customers about its products. 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁𝘀: Now, Belk can speak to its community of customers in the voice that is most effective for them while maintaining consistent messaging across all of its content. 𝗞𝗲𝘆 𝘁𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗮𝘄𝗮𝘆𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗵𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝘀 𝗳𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝘄𝗶𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗶𝗰𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗱 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗻𝗰𝗲𝗿, 𝗖𝗵𝗶𝗲𝗳 𝗜𝗻𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗢𝗳𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝘁 𝗕𝗲𝗹𝗸 𝗗𝗲𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗲𝘀 →“A lot of our data comes from our vendors and that may be the vendor’s voice, but not Belk’s voice. One of the great things about generative AI is that it really helps us to have a Belk voice that really creates consistency in messaging. We have a person that can quickly go through and approve, make edits, adjust it, but 90% of the work is being done automatically by the computer.” — Richard Spencer, Chief Information Officer at Belk Department Stores →“Working with Google Cloud Consulting, within a day, we had a solution outlined. Within a couple days, we had a prototype, a proof of concept that actually worked, and within a few weeks we h