Seite - 125 - in Digital Entrepreneurship - Impact on Business and Society

between their company structure. As a first example, AmazonWeb Services is a product and service platform for Internet-based technologies thatAmazonoffers its customers.Therangeofservicesofferedextendsfromanalyticalservices,blockchain, databases andstorage to tools fordevelopers (cf.Amazon.comInc.2020a).Against the background of this study, the machine learning offer is of interest. With this service,Amazonoffers itscustomers thepossibilityofAIapplications.At thispoint, thismeans thatAmazonoffers the infrastructureand theserviceofdevelopment and thus provides the customers the possibility to develop AI services at lower costs. Thesecostscannotonlybeofadirectmonetarynaturebutcanalsobereflectedinthe personnelarea.Bythatcompaniesusingthisofferneedlesspersonnelwiththeskillsin machine learningorAI to carry out their owndevelopments in this area. Thus, this service from Amazon Web Services is not only to be understood as an Infrastructure-as-a-Servicebut also as anAI-as-a-Service.Secondly,AmazonGo andAmazonGoGrocery should serve as another example for the use ofAI. This represents a separatemainstayofAmazon in thegrocery retail sector. The essential conceptofthisstoremodelistheshoppingexperiencewithoutqueuesatthecheckout. This is achieved bydispensing the physical checkout. This so-called checkout-free shoppingisattainedbyusingAItorecordtheproducts takenbythecustomer.Bythe aidofsensors,theAIcanmonitorthestatusoftheproductsinthemarketpermanently. When the customer leaves the shop, an invoice is automatically sent to theAmazon customer’s account (cf. Amazon.com Inc. 2020b).With the use of theAI, a value creationforthecustomerisoperatedinthisBM.Thetransactioncostsforthecustomer areminimizedby theeliminationof the checkout.Thisnotonly improves customer service, but also creates a completely newvalue creation service (cf.Clickatell Inc. 2020). On the other hand, this BM also changes the usual structure of the shop operator.ByusingAI,personnelcostsforthecheckoutareomitted.Furthermore, this BMisonlymadepossiblebyusingAI. It represents thefundamentalcomponent that notonlymakes the innovationof theBMpossible,butalsooperates thismodel.The businessmodelcanthereforebedescribedasAI-driven.Additionally,theorientation in termsof theBMis tobeconsideredmoderate tograndonboth sides.Asafinal example, theconceptofanticipatoryshippinghastobementioned.Amazonhasbeen thinkingabout radicallychangingits retailbusinessmodelwith theuseofAIandhas evenpatentedthis(cf.GooglePatents2012).Undertheterm“anticipatoryshipping”, the company developed an ideawhere the shipping of a product should take place before theactual sale.BasedonthepredictionofanAI,products thatareexpected to bedesiredby thecustomer shouldbeshippedwithout theirorder.Subsequently, the customerscouldthendecidewhethertoreturnorkeeptheproduct.Therearedifferent interpretations of whether the product should be shifted anticipatory into a closer environmentordelivereddirectlytothecustomer(cf.OnMarketing2014),(cf.Lomas 2014).Regardlessoftheinterpretationofsuchamodel, itshowsaphenomenoninthe wayAmazonwouldchange thewayitdoesbusiness.Thecustomerwouldnolonger be the sole executor of apurchase, but theAIwouldalso.Thearguments for sucha drasticchangeof theBMare in thewaythevaluecreationshould takeplaceafter the change. It isassumedthatvalueiscreatedfor thecustomerbytakingover theactivity ofselectingandbuying.This is intendedtorelieve theburdenonthecustomerandat AI-Enhanced BusinessModels for Digital… 129