The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Asos experiments with artifical intelligence as sales climb artificial intelligence after sales increased 30pc to £500m in the last four months 12 July 2016 • 4:04pm The boss of Asos has revealed that the company is working on artificial intelligence and voice-recognition technology to ensure the online fashion retailer is at the forefront of changing shopping behaviours.
 Nick Beighton, chief executive, revealed to The Telegraph that the company was already developing the technology as Asos beat City expectations with a 30pc rise in group revenues to £514.
6m for the last four months.
 The fashion retailer defied the wider retail slowdown by posting a 28pc increase in UK retail sales to £203.
1m.
 International retail sales also lifted by 25pc to £297.
4m.
 Asos Asos expects 90pc of sales to come from mobile as it focuses on millennial shoppers With Asos’ overseas business accounting for just under 60pc of revenues the company will be one of the rare retail Brexit winners as the slump in the pound will boost its export business and lower the costs.
 Mr Beighton, who took the reins of the company from founder Nick Robertson last September, said that the majority of ordered goods were paid for in sterling and the company would be a “beneficiary in the medium term” from the weakening pound.
 Andrew Wade, an analyst at Numis, said the weak pound has given Asos “additional firepower” to cut prices across its range of shoes, clothes and accessories for its overseas customers.
 Asos Asos will be a winner from Brexit and the pound's slump as just under 60pc of its sales are overseas The Asos boss said that he expected mobile sales to account for 90pc of revenues by 2020 after the rapid growth meant that already 66pc of sales come from mobile devices as the company targeted its millennial shopper base with social media campaigns on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook.
 "“We want a Siri on steroids""Nick Beighton, Asos boss “Asos didn’t invent social media but we have adopted it and are now on every social media channel.
.
we are now working on various investments such as developing our own artificial intelligence and voice recognition…we have to nimble and vigilant to change,”said Mr Beighton.
 AI timeline “We want a Siri on steroids to inform customers when a dress is back in stock”, he said.
 Mr Beighton downplayed the threat of Amazon’s recent foray into fashion and said while he would “never be complacent about Amazon, they are a very different beast”.
 The Asos chief executive also said it was unlikely the online retailer would be able to do same-day deliveries, like Amazon offers with its Prime service or upmarket rival Net-a-Porter does, without significantly raising cost.
 “Our average basket size is £56 so I don’t think that we could make it work as our twenty-plus customer is probably not going to want to pay the extra cost.
 If you are spending £1,000 on a dress at Net-a-Porter to wear that evening that extra delivery charge might not make the difference.
” “I think that we have a desirable, differentiated and defensible offer”, Mr Beighton said.
 The company said it expects full-year sales growth to come in at the upper end of the 20pc to 25pc forecast range and full-year profits were "on track" to meet expectations, with analysts forecasting a 28pc lift in pre-tax profits to £61m.
 The buoyant trading follows the closure of Asos' loss-making China business in May following its struggles to make a dent against Alibaba.
 ASC The stock has risen from £38.
42 on June 23 to today's price of £42.
85.
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