Everest climber takes Lenovo Retail Solutions to peak of global recognition
Lawrence Yu heads tech firm’s department which won Bronze Edison Award for excellence at industry’s ‘Oscars of innovation’
Lawrence Yu believes there is a parallel between his experience of climbing Mount Everest and his role heading the business team at Lenovo Retail Solutions. Both journeys began at the ground level and, as he describes it, both resulted in wholly rewarding outcomes.
“For me, personally, the work we are doing at Lenovo Retail Solutions is like climbing another mountain right from the bottom,” he says. “It’s going to be a years-long effort. It takes a lot of dedication, a lot of perseverance, but that drive is exactly what customers are looking for when they come to Lenovo.”
The retail industry is grappling with persistent issues such as evolving customer needs, labour shortages and operational inefficiency. Artificial intelligence (AI) offers a promising path to address these challenges.
However, the reality of AI adoption is that many businesses are unprepared, despite their best intentions. While 69 per cent of retailers plan to implement AI, 65 per cent face difficulties keeping up with new technologies and 41 per cent lack in-house AI expertise. Making full use of AI throughout a company can be a long, complex journey.
“AI needs to be implemented, and that’s the difficult part,” Yu says. “One of the biggest challenges is customers are not sure about the outcome. Recognising this, we work with customers to implement the AI solutions in a phased, step-by-step approach, starting with a proof-of-concept project in one area before expanding is one of the solutions.”
From identifying opportunities and use cases to managing data and deploying solutions, Lenovo aims to support organisations of all sizes on their AI implementation journeys. Lenovo’s AI Services bring together business advisers, top data scientists and well-established, AI-optimised infrastructure to make it easy. The company brings AI to the public, to enterprises, and personal data to help accelerate retailers’ AI journey and unleash intelligent transformation.
Last month at Lenovo TechWorld ’24 in Bellevue, Washington state, in the United States, Yu and his team showed how retailers can create a seamless shopping experience while minimising losses by combining AI with advanced hardware and sensor technology.
This automated system ensures that all items are accurately scanned, reducing the risk of shrinkage and speeding up the checkout process. Through these efforts, Lenovo enables retailers to advance sustainable, customer-centric strategies and streamline operational efficiency through AI.
Lenovo’s offerings, which have been fast-tracked into retail outlets globally, are recognised for their innovation and effectiveness. At April’s Edison Awards – the global standard-bearer when recognising excellence in new product and service innovation – there were more than 400 submissions, and Lenovo Retail Solutions won the Bronze award in the Commercial Technology Solutions category, marking the second Edison Award win in Lenovo’s 40-year corporate history.
Judges said that Lenovo had helped firms “operate efficiently, personalise customer experiences, enhance their service quality and explore new revenue streams, with a hassle-free asset-light service model”.
Having gone from zero to nearly 10,000 installations in general retail, food and beverage, hospitality and corporate establishments in more than 40 markets, Lenovo has seen exponential growth.
“The awards are the Oscars of innovation,” Yu says. “It was a huge vote of confidence for a company that has been doing this for just four years.”
By tapping into the expertise of Ken Wong, president of Lenovo’s Solutions and Services Group, and his team, the company has been working towards delivering transformative smart solutions and services across various customer verticals.
“Lenovo wanted to develop a whole suite of retail solutions,” Yu says. “We wanted to provide a whole new in-store shopping experience.” He says the way to achieve this is to follow what has become Lenovo Retail Solutions’ mantra: be nimble, flexible and customer-centric.
A guided tour of the Lenovo Retail Solutions Showcase Store at the company’s Hong Kong office highlights offerings that have become commonplace in retail outlets. Its point-of-sale solutions, alongside market-leading Scan-n-Go self-service kiosks, have been designed to prioritise a “super shopping” experience for consumers, Yu says.
Electronic shelf labels eliminate the possibility of pricing mistakes, while dynamic digital signage uses AI to analyse foot traffic data, personalise shopping experiences and ultimately increase sales. Intelligent checkout counters can also scan items in batches, driving the trend towards contactless shopping and automated checkout procedures, which frees staff for other tasks, and cuts queue times.
In addition, Lenovo’s robotic solutions can create new possibilities for the future of retail by enhancing the experiences of retail staff and customers. The company has also enabled retailers to address their capital investment concerns through TruScale, a bold, everything-as-a-service solution for enhancing the power, flexibility and scale.
Yu and his team plan to connect with industry leaders and innovators at the National Retail Federation 2025: Retail’s Big Show running in New York City from January 11 to 14. He will be on the main stage to deliver a keynote speech while revealing how AI technologies are helping to transform retailers’ business models.
The annual event provides the perfect platform for Lenovo to showcase its cutting-edge solutions, which are designed to empower retailers and drive business growth. Its participation is part of the company’s efforts to foster meaningful partnerships, explore emerging trends and demonstrate its commitment to delivering innovative products and services that shape the future of retail.
Looking ahead to next year’s event, Yu says his experience while climbing Everest has taught him how to be successful in his career. “You have to dedicate yourself to the journey,” he says. “We are committed to the retail industry. The Edison Award, and seeing Lenovo’s solutions at work in thousands of stores, reflect that commitment, even as our journey has only just begun.”