Retail-ai offers retail and FMCG companies four services: Generative AI solutions specifically for the industry, an academy for up- and re-skilling in companies, a lab for industry-specific AI research and the Alliance as a knowledge hub and forum for practitioners and users.
On March 28, AI pioneers and professors Peter Gentsch and Christian Au founded Retail.ai GmbH in Frankfurt am Main with Markant AG as the main shareholder. According to Managing Director Mark Michaelis, the start-up, which is financed by the Swiss company, aims to support and empower retail companies and the FMCG industry to make optimal use of generative AI. To this end, the Frankfurt-based company will offer generative AI solutions specially developed for this industry, training and further education courses, a moderated exchange and transfer of knowledge and industry-specific research.
Mark Michaelis explains Markant’s commitment: “We see an enormous demand for generative AI in the market. This was certainly triggered by the hype surrounding generative AI around a year and a half ago. We have spoken to many retail partners over the past year and many companies in the FMCG and DIY sectors are now asking themselves: How do I get this to work? We want to provide an answer to this question with Retail.ai.”
Prof. Christian Au, who supports the Retail.ai factory where the GenKI solutions are developed, emphasizes: “Our focus is on hands-on solutions. The aim is to use rapid prototyping on best-of-breed large language models, among other things, to quickly and agilely develop solutions specifically for the consumer goods industry and consumer goods retail.” These would be available to all interested companies in the industry as GenKI-as-a-Service and would also enable smaller companies to use generative AI for the first time, which was previously only available to large corporations. “Our focus is on the rapid development of prototypes that support specific use cases for the consumer goods industry and retail with the help of generative AI.” The applications will initially be developed and tested together with markant partner companies. The apps will then gradually be made available to all interested companies in the industry as a SaaS solution via a platform. This will also enable smaller companies to use highly specialized generative AI solutions that were previously only available to large corporations. “Our services on the platform are optimized for use in European companies. Information security and data protection naturally play an important role here. We therefore offer the solutions in a secure, enterprise-ready cloud environment,” explains Au.
Another key offering of Retail.ai is the academy, says Prof. Peter Gentsch: “I believe the biggest challenge is to establish a mindset in retail and the FMCG industry that accepts generative AI as a game changer. It understands that this is a fundamental technology that will fundamentally change processes, companies and markets.” To achieve this, the industry needs up- and re-skilling from the working to the management level: “The responsibility for setting the direction and integrating AI lies largely in the hands of managers, but the implementation takes place in middle management and at the working level. Our academy offers training modules for all levels that provide essential knowledge on various aspects of the use of generative AI in the industry. Companies can only master the transformation through sound education and training in generative AI across all stakeholder groups – otherwise fears, reservations and ignorance will always stand in the way of a successful introduction of the new technology,” emphasizes Gentsch.
Gentsch also organizes the alliance at Retail.ai: “In this industry forum, we bring together practitioners from interested companies to jointly develop strategies, best practices, guidelines and cases from which everyone can benefit through the combined experience of the participants,” says Gentsch. “Generative AI can optimize all areas – from supply and category management to purchasing and stores. Retail in Germany is undoubtedly an important asset because it has an incredible amount of data. However, we need to move from ChatGPT to ‘ActGPT’ – in other words, we need to develop models with which we can act, design, monitor and orchestrate production processes. The Amazons, Googles and Metas of this world can’t do that because they simply don’t have these assets. As Retail.ai, we want to fill this gap with the alliance and jointly develop solutions that will advance the industry as a whole,” promises Gentsch.
And finally, Professors Au and Gentsch will research, test and develop new fields of application, prediction models and large language models specifically for retail and the consumer goods industry in the Retail.ai Lab. Gentsch emphasizes that work in the lab will be interdisciplinary: “We plan to have experts from data science, behavioural economics, supply chain management and marketing develop comprehensive solutions for our target group,” says the AI scientist. According to his colleague Au, collaboration with universities and start-ups is planned for this. The vision: the lab connects innovative concepts and technical AI solutions with potential users. This allows companies in the sector to quickly test the state of the art and integrate it into their work processes, while start-ups benefit from concrete practical evaluations.
Further information: https://retailai.io
Markant
Markant has been an established player and partner in the B2B retail sector for many years and has deep relationships in cooperation with suppliers and retailers. Markant has important market and process knowledge and networks companies and people with each other. As a reliable service provider and partner in the retail industry, Markant enjoys a high level of trust. Professors Christian Au and Peter Gentsch bring in-depth expertise in agile design and implementation of generative AI in retail. In addition to a sound academic background, they have many years of start-up and professional experience. The team is complemented by Mark Michaelis, who, as a representative of the Markant Group, learned the retail business from the ground up and has held various management positions in recent years.
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About Retail.ai GmbH
Retail.ai has a clear mission: “We are putting AI into retail” – we enable and accelerate AI innovations “made in Germany and Europe” with the aim of strengthening German and European suppliers and retailers and making them globally competitive. Markant AG founded Retail.ai together with Prof. Dr. Christian Au and Prof. Dr. Peter Gentsch to do just that.
About Prof. Dr. Christian Au
Christian Au holds a degree in computer science and a doctorate in philosophy. He has worked at the German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence (DFKI), the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Institute for Information Systems at the University of St. Gallen. As a strategy consultant at McKinsey, he gained many years of experience in strategy projects in various industries such as logistics and retail in Germany and abroad. With his working group at Mainz University of Applied Sciences, he conducts research into data-driven decision-making and digital platforms. One focus is the use and adaptation of generative AI models in strategic management. He has been advising medium-sized companies and large corporations on the design and implementation of AI-based software systems for many years.
About Prof. Dr. Peter Gentsch
Peter Gentsch completed his doctorate at the end of the 1990s on the topic of AI in product and innovation management. Alongside his academic career at WHU, he became enthusiastic about entrepreneurship and AI start-ups at an early stage. As a result, he successfully founded and expanded various AI start-ups. By selling to international companies, his technologies were able to scale globally. The technologies developed have won various digital and innovation awards. His clients and consulting mandates include Audi, Bosch, Google, Metro, Lufthansa, Penny, Otto Group, Viessmann and Würth. Peter Gentsch is also the author of numerous national and international award-winning publications and inspires his international audience as a keynote speaker with his vivid and entertaining style, for example at the industry event “Zuckerhut”. At the 50th anniversary WEF in Davos, he spoke on the topic of “Game Changer AI – the opportunity for the German economy”.
About Mark Michaelis
As a trained wholesale and foreign trade merchant and computer scientist, Mark Michaelis is the professional link between IT, AI and retail processes. With his many years of industry expertise, professional competence and management experience, he rounds off the Retail.ai management team and ensures the connection to the Markant Group.