SymphonyAI has partnered with Microsoft to offer retail AI software applications to retailers and CPGs using Microsoft Azure OpenAI service, the company announced. The collaboration was includes two copilot systems for retailers.
Category Manager Copilot is meant to understand the intent of a user’s questions to rapidly identify all performance-affecting factors in a product category and make recommendations about best actions to take. The system uses both text and graphics to quickly communicate insights and summaries, guiding users through different potential scenarios and assembling clear next steps.
According to SymphonyAI, the system is intended to help category managers make better decisions faster.
The Demand Planner Copilot gives demand planners “the ability to more accurately forecast optimized inventory quantities with a prioritized approach to understand, act and communicate inventory requirements based on highly accurate AI-based forecasts,” the company stated.
The system performs analysis to pinpoint the cause of increased or decreased demand and provides mitigation recommendations. When new items are introduced into the assortment with no demand history to inform the forecast, the Demand Planner Copilot indexes master item repositories to match attributes of like items to generate forecasts for the planner.
“Through integration with Azure OpenAI Service, SymphonyAI’s retail applications will deliver measurable value to retailers and CPGs,” said Keith Mercier, general manager, worldwide retail and consumer goods, Microsoft. “Next-generation predictive and generative AI tools can help transform retail by enhancing operational efficiency and supporting end-to-end connectivity from the store to corporate.”
Google Cloud also announced a new suite of generative AI tools for retailers that are intended to improve the online shopping experience for customers as well as help with other retail operations, reported CNBC News.
One of the new products is a generative AI chatbot that retailers can use on websites and apps. According to Google, virtual agents can talk to consumers and recommend products based on shoppers’ preferences.
Additionally, the technology company announced a large language model feature that the company said will bolster the quality of product searches. The feature is currently only available to select stores, but general availability is expected to come later this year, CNBC reported.