Several speakers at the fifth annual Mobile Disrupt conference in Miami this week noted how much the mobile device landscape has already changed since the event started.
Numerous industry experts told the thousand-plus attendees that some of the ideas introduced during the inaugural expo have already gone the way of the Blackberry. They’re still around to discuss it, they said, because they were able to incorporate AI into their operations, change how critical minerals are recovered, and otherwise adapt to maximize output and revenue.
There’s always been money available for players in the used-device market, they said, but without reconsidering how that profit is made, the money will eventually dry up. Regulations around device history, increased focus on recovering the minerals in devices and more advanced data issues mean companies have to constantly look at ways to advance their methods.
“The consumer is getting so educated — not only the retailers, the insurance companies, the carriers, but also the end consumers,” said David Arredondo, CEO of Stone Group USA, a Florida-based phone repair and refurbishment company.
“What got you here is not what’s going to get you the rest of the way. The industry is evolving,” said Bob Lafon, president of Lafon & Associates consulting firm and co-founder of Mobile Disrupt. “If you’re not willing to change with it, you’re going to go away.”
On a smaller scale, AI can enhance many individual business functions. Arredondo said his company created a nine-person AI department and uses it for inventory management, shipping and similar functions, completing them more quickly and accurately.
Vitally, that includes used-device assessment, which many leaders agree remains too haphazard of a process. One company’s “A” or “excellent” grade could, using the exact same parameters, be another company’s “B” or “very good” grade. That almost by definition creates confusion and fuels distrust among customers.
Rectifying this could, according to Josh Beasley, CEO of Florida-based ITAD and refurbishment company Early Upgrade, create more value before devices even hit the market.
“Sometimes you don’t know what you have until the product is already in the facility. From a value chain standpoint, that’s too late,” said Beasley, who noted any initial investment companies make in bolstering their testing capabilities pays off later. “If you can spend 20 cents to make sure a product is how it’s supposed to be, you can prevent a $14 return cost.”
Chris Cornell, senior manager of strategy and operations at eBay, said items that aren’t as described create undue supply chain noise and deter repeat buyers. Using AI-assisted grading diagnostics creates consistency that keeps buyers coming back, he said.
“The buyer won’t be sure about buying refurbished again” with grading inconsistency, he said. “There’s a lot of value already in the supply chain that’s being lost, when you have to sell items at a lower grade. There’s value right there at your fingertips by improving grading consistency.”
AI can also help gather information and assess situations faster than any person could, said Kevin Dillon, co-founder and CMO/CSO of the California-based ITAD company Electronics Recycling International. That ultimately helps turn items around faster, preventing depreciation, and gets more devices out of the waste stream and back into reuse.
“From a data analytics standpoint, it’s priceless,” he said. “It’s allowing us to be fully integrated with clients. It makes communication of data for our front-end consumers more seamless.”
Technology can also help re-engage with customers that got away, Lafon said. As one example, he said AI can be taught to perform follow-up calls with prospects who chose a rival company, gaining insight on what competitors are doing differently.
“If you’re not taking advantage of those efficiencies, shame on you,” he said.
From a broader point of view, AI should be treated more as a layer of your business, according to Jon Newman, CEO of PrologMoblie, which provides analytic tools for second-hand device companies. A more holistic incorporation of the technology will mitigate seismic shifts when the marketplace changes, he said.
“It is touching everything,” he said. “If you feel like you’re not keeping up, there’s a reason. It’s because the ground is moving right beneath us.”
To keep up, Lafon suggests using AI to learn how to use AI. He’s had clients who, after feeding AI information about the company, its mission and other data points, got detailed instructions on how the platform could fill gaps and improve efficiencies.
That can include repositioning people within the company to do what they do most effectively, said Nik Raman, CEO of PhoneXHoldings, a SaaS provider for secondhand device companies.
“Can we enable the human to do exactly what they need to do to make more money?” he said. “AI is a force multiplier.”
Exponential multiplication will continue across the industry, said Jerry Abramov, founder and CEO of COS Phones, a used device redistribution company. This year alone, he’s seen technology reduce energy use and labor cost at his company, improve inventory systems and more efficiently use the software that’s already in place.
So learning where the curve is going and staying ahead of it is essential, he said.
“What we learned 20 years ago is history,” he said. “What we’re going to learn today with AI will innovate in the next few years. You have to start feeling safe using AI in your industry, in your company.”
