DALLAS – December 12, 2017 – SymphonyAI, the leading global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, today announced that Ryan Powell has been named Vice President of Merchandising and Category Management. In his new role at SymphonyAI, Powell will be responsible for all areas of the company’s Merchandising and Category Management business, including product management, innovation, RandD and go-to-market strategy.
Powell most recently led the Global Category Management practice at Capgemini and previously served in executive positions with JDA, Red Bull and MVP Innovation. He is a recognized expert in category management solutions and best practices and has extensive experience working with both retailers and CPG companies. Powell will focus on ensuring customer business value, understanding current and future industry and technology trends, and leveraging Symphony Retail’s game-changing AI technologies to drive exponential growth and efficiencies for retailers and CPG brands.
“Ryan is a proven leader with a passion for innovation, and he is the ideal person to lead our Merchandising and Category Management group,” said Graeme Cooksley, CEO and President, Symphony GOLD Business Unit. “Ryan joins us at an exciting time when we are rapidly extending Symphony Retail’s leadership in merchandising and category management and widening the innovation gap between ourselves and other solution providers.”
More than 250 retailers and 450 CPG manufacturers in over 60 countries rely on SymphonyAI’s solutions every day. This depth and breadth of market penetration has made it possible for Symphony Retail to generate more than 50 million planograms and execute more than 8 million store category assortments annually. Albertsons, Blokker, Lipari Foods, Pague Menos and Giant Eagle are among the many retailers and CPG brands that have migrated to Symphony Retail’s next-generation cloud merchandising and category management solutions.
Symphony Retail’s newest innovation brings artificial intelligence and machine learning to category management, with CINDE (Conversational INsights and Decision Engine), the first digital analytic assistant for grocery and hard goods retail. CINDE incorporates AI, prescriptive analytics, natural language speech technology, and immersive visualization in a system that receives input from users and provides conversational answers. CINDE goes far beyond the simple tasks currently performed by many voice and AI-powered applications, providing instant answers to the most complex category management questions.
At the heart of its retail solutions is a Customer 360° platform, which gathers and analyzes customer attributes for online shopping, grocery, restaurant, store location and customer location data (mobile location tracking) and other demographic data. Unlike many solution providers, Symphony Retail’s offering is flexible and data-agnostic, meaning retailers can rely on data and insights derived from the Customer 360° platform, or from a third-party vendor.
“Symphony Retail is transforming retail by driving customer intelligence into all planning and execution decisions,” said Powell. “While our competition is only talking about partnerships, I look forward to further accelerating the growth of the world’s leading customer-centric assortment and space planning solutions that are already used by many of the world’s grocery retailers and CPG manufacturers. I’m thrilled to join the company that is continuously innovating and shaping the future of retail solutions.”
About SymphonyAI
SymphonyAI is the leading global provider of Artificial Intelligence-enabled decision platforms, solutions and customer-centric insights that drive validated growth for retailers and CPG manufacturers, from customer intelligence to personalized marketing, and merchandising and category management, to supply chain and retail operations. SymphonyAI is innovating rapidly to drive faster, more profitable decisions through AI, machine learning and voice technologies. We are trusted by over 1200 organizations including 15 of the world’s 25 largest grocery retailers, thousands of retail brands, and hundreds of national and regional chains worldwide to help solve their toughest business problems, through AI-powered customer intelligence and retail solutions. SymphonyAI was formed from the combination of Symphony GOLD, renamed Retail Solutions Division, and Symphony EYC, now the Customer Intelligence Division. More at www.symphonyretailai.com. Follow us on Twitter: @symphonyretail.
Media Contact
Adrienne Newcomb
Ketner Group Communications (for SymphonyAI)
adrienne@ketnergroup.com
512-794-8876
