The IKEA AI transformation shows that most companies are still asking the wrong question about artificial intelligence.
They ask:
What can we replace?
It is an understandable question.
AI can automate routine tasks, reduce friction, speed up service and cut operational costs. For many businesses, that is where the conversation starts and stops.
But IKEA’s AI transformation shows there is a far more valuable question to ask:
What can we now make possible?
Because the real commercial value of AI is not always found in the task it automates.
Sometimes, it is found in the human capacity it unlocks.
That distinction matters. As we explored in AI Marketing Strategy: Why Most CMOs Are Getting It Wrong, AI is only useful when it is connected to a clear commercial strategy. Without that, it becomes another tool chasing efficiency without direction.
The IKEA AI transformation started with efficiency
In 2021, Ingka Group, the largest IKEA retailer, rolled out an AI-powered chatbot called Billie.
The name was a nod to IKEA’s famous Billy bookcase range.
Billie was designed to handle customer enquiries at scale. These included the simpler, repetitive service interactions that large retail teams deal with every day.
And it worked.
According to Ingka Group, from 2021 to 2023, Billie resolved approximately 47% of the customer enquiries it received, solving 3.2 million interactions and generating nearly €13 million in savings.
Ingka also says 8,500 call centre co-workers were reskilled into capabilities including remote interior design, digital retail sales, relationship-building and complex customer problem-solving.
In many organisations, that would have been the end of the story.
The business case would be written around efficiency. The saving would be celebrated. The workforce impact would be discussed in terms of reduction.
But IKEA did something more interesting.
It treated automation not as the final destination, but as the beginning of a different operating model.
The real opportunity was not the 47%
The obvious story is that AI handled almost half of IKEA’s customer enquiries.
But the more important story is what happened next.
Once Billie began absorbing the simpler, more repetitive work, IKEA could look more closely at the customer needs that remained.
These were not just “unresolved tickets.”
They were signals.
They pointed to the kinds of customer problems that still needed judgement, creativity, context and trust.
A chatbot may be able to answer a stock query.
But helping someone reimagine a small apartment, plan a nursery, design a work-from-home space, or make a room feel more liveable is not just a transactional task.
There is emotion in it.
The problem is personal.
The opportunity is commercial.
And it is exactly the kind of work where human expertise can create far more value than a scripted answer ever could.
That is the lesson too many brands miss.
AI does not only tell you what can be automated. Used properly, it can also show you where human value is still strongest.
IKEA moved people into higher-value work
Instead of treating AI as a replacement strategy, IKEA used it as a redeployment strategy.
Reuters reported that Ingka had trained 8,500 call centre workers as interior design advisers since 2021, while Billie had handled 47% of customer queries to call centres over the previous two years.
Reuters also reported that Ingka’s global people and culture manager said the increased use of AI was not leading to a headcount reduction “right now.”
That shift matters.
These were not employees being moved away from the customer.
They were being moved closer to the customer’s higher-value needs.
Less time spent on repetitive service.
More time spent on advice, inspiration and problem-solving.
Less reactive support.
More proactive selling.
Less “Where is my order?”
More “How can we help you create a better space?”
That is where AI becomes strategically useful.
Not because it removes people from the business, but because it changes where people can add value.
Technology supported the human experience
IKEA’s transformation was not just about a chatbot.
It also sat within a broader digital retail shift, including tools such as IKEA Kreativ, an AI-driven design experience that allows customers to visualise furniture in realistic digital rooms.
According to the IKEA Newsroom, IKEA Kreativ uses spatial computing, machine learning and 3D mixed reality technologies to help people design and visualise living spaces from computers and smartphones.
The platform can help customers scan their own rooms, create editable 3D replicas, erase existing furniture and place IKEA products into the space to understand how they might look, fit and function.
This is where the model becomes powerful.
AI handles the scale.
Digital tools handle the visualisation.
Human advisers handle the trust, taste, reassurance and practical judgement.
That combination is far more commercially valuable than automation on its own.
Because customers do not only want a faster answer.
Often, they want confidence.
They want to feel that the product will work in their real home, with their real constraints, their real budget and their real life.
The result was not just efficiency. It was revenue.
The commercial result was significant.
Reuters reported that sales by phone or video through Ingka’s remote interior design channel accounted for €1.3 billion, approximately US$1.40 billion, in revenue in Ingka’s 2022 financial year.
That represented 3.3% of total revenue, with Ingka aiming to grow that share to 10% by 2028.
That is the point.
The headline is not simply that IKEA used AI to save money.
The bigger story is that IKEA used AI to free capacity, redirect capability and scale a more valuable customer experience.
The nearly €13 million saving from Billie was meaningful.
But the €1.3 billion remote sales channel shows the much larger opportunity.
When AI is connected to a clear commercial strategy, it can help create new paths to revenue.
For growth-focused brands, that is where the conversation needs to move.
Not just:
How do we automate?
But:
How do we use automation to build a stronger growth system?
That is also the thinking behind The Ultimate Edge Media Formula: media, data, creative and optimisation need to work together as a commercial engine, not as isolated activities.
What the IKEA AI transformation teaches marketers
There is a temptation to treat AI as a cost-cutting machine.
And yes, AI can reduce cost.
But if that is the only ambition, the strategy is too small.
The stronger question is:
What customer demand are we currently unable to serve because our people are trapped in low-value work?
For marketers, this is especially important.
Because the future of AI in marketing, sales and customer experience is not just about producing more content, answering more queries or automating more workflows.
The real opportunity is understanding where the customer journey gets stuck.
It also means seeing what people still need from people.
Most importantly, it means using automation to create the space for better strategy, better creativity and better commercial conversations.
That also matters in an AI-search environment, where brands need to be not only findable but meaningfully referenced, remembered and trusted.
As discussed in Brand Mentions: The New Currency in AI Search, authority is increasingly shaped by the credibility, context and consistency of what a brand puts into the market.
IKEA’s example shows a simple but powerful operating principle:
Let AI handle the repeatable.
Let people handle the valuable.
Then redesign the business around what creates growth.
AI is not the strategy
AI did not make IKEA’s transformation successful on its own.
The strategy did.
The strategic decision was not simply to install a chatbot.
It was to decide what should happen after the chatbot worked.
That is where many businesses fall short.
A process gets automated, but the role is never redesigned.
Workload goes down, but talent is not redirected.
Data gets collected, but the business does not look closely enough at what it reveals about unmet customer needs.
IKEA did.
And that is why this case matters.
The brands that win with AI will not be the ones that simply replace tasks faster than everyone else.
They will be the ones that understand what AI makes possible next.
Because automation creates capacity.
But strategy decides whether that capacity becomes cost saving, customer value or commercial growth.
References
Reuters. “IKEA bets on remote interior design as AI changes sales strategy.” Published 13 June 2023.
