韩国CU便利店用AI虚拟消费者参与9900韩元Runner Box新品策划

Convenience store chain CU this month launched the 9,900-won "Runner Box" at its Running Station outlets in areas including Yeouido. The product was created using advice from artificial intelligence (AI) consumers rather than humans. When CU surveyed AI-generated virtual consumers, 43% said they wanted running-related package products, 66% preferred a price of 10,000 won or less, and their preferred nutritional components were protein (32%) followed by essential amino acids (14%). A synthetic AI consumer profiled as a woman in her 30s who runs three or more times a week requested, "I wish there were a liquid-form product that could reduce the dry texture characteristic of protein." Reflecting these opinions from AI synthetic consumers, CU launched the Runner Box, consisting of an energy gel containing 3,000 mg of high-concentration amino acids, two baked eggs, chicken breast, and protein truffle mushroom soup.
The retail industry's use of AI is spreading beyond customer-facing services such as store guidance and interpretation into all areas of business, including product planning and logistics. Convenience stores ask virtual consumers about their reactions to new products in advance, and duty-free operators are building AI-based logistics systems.
According to the retail industry on the 15th, BGF Retail, the operator of CU, recently signed a "strategic business agreement for AI data-based retail innovation" with Intellisia, a startup that holds synthetic consumer technology. Synthetic consumers are a technology that generates thousands to tens of thousands of virtual personas with different ages, genders, and tastes within a large language model (LLM). Built on millions of pieces of consumer data, they respond to multiple-choice surveys like real people and also provide open-ended evaluations of products. CU began marketing planning using synthetic consumers in April and formalized the collaboration with this agreement after confirming results with the Runner Box.
CU also conducted an analysis of convenience store lunch boxes. Based on findings that consumers perceive lunch boxes as a "quick and easy meal" and a product exclusively for solo dining, CU is planning to develop menus with more diverse side dishes and sizes, as well as to expand in-store dining spaces. The technology will later be applied to store operations. Synthetic consumers will visit "ParaStore," a virtual store implemented with digital twin technology, to simulate product displays and customer flow in advance.
CU cited the volume and depth of data as the difference between synthetic consumer technology and general-purpose AI such as ChatGPT. While general-purpose AI stops at fragmentary reasoning, synthetic consumers produce highly reliable quantitative and qualitative results based on millions of consumer persona data points that can be immediately applied in practice, the company explained. It also highlighted as a strength that consumer research, which used to take months, can be repeated in a matter of days in a retail environment where product trends and popularity cycles are increasingly short.
Store guidance and interpretation have already established themselves as basic services in the retail sector. CJ Olive Young introduced "AI Shopping Assistant" kiosks on the 8th of this month, focusing on stores with many foreign customers. Customers can converse in real time with an AI avatar and access product descriptions, inventory checks, in-store location guidance, and personalized recommendations in eight languages. The AI interpretation service that helps one-on-one consultations with staff has expanded its supported languages to 38.
The department store industry moved a step ahead. Lotte Department Store introduced an AI interpretation service at its Jamsil branch in April 2024, the first in the retail industry, and currently handles an average of 700 inquiries from foreigners per day through interpretation displays supporting more than 10 languages at its Jamsil branch and Lotte World Mall. Hyundai Department Store also added a real-time voice translation function to its AI shopping assistant "Heidi Global" and expanded its supported languages to Spanish and French.
AI is also making inroads into back-end logistics. Duty-free logistics is considered a high-difficulty field even within the retail industry. When a customer buys products multiple times across various channels, including downtown duty-free shops and online, starting several months before departure, the duty-free operator must gather these items and deliver them to the airport pickup counter at the exact time on the day of the customer's departure. Because there is a long time gap between order and receipt, and the pickup timing is tied to flight schedules, even a slight delay can result in a customer boarding a plane without receiving their products.
Shinsegae Duty Free decided to solve this process with an AI logistics system that incorporates LG Electronics' smart factory capabilities. It will introduce an automation solution that links real-time order data and on-site data across the entire process from ordering to warehousing, storage, inspection, picking, and shipping, and will quickly classify and transport products using mobile robots. A digital twin control system that replicates the logistics center online detects stock shortages or equipment abnormalities in advance to prevent delivery delays. In effect, AI manages the task of gathering scattered orders at a single point without error, in line with departure schedules.
Lee Eun-gwan, head of BGF Retail's CX Division, said, "Through AI, we aim to achieve digital innovation at a stage that goes beyond analyzing customers' past consumption patterns to predicting in advance the experiences future customers will want." He added, "We will reflect changing customer needs more precisely and create a new retail experience that provides personalized products and services."