Collaborative AI agents are key to retail supply chains

"In a recent meeting with a large retailer, my contact shared that each buyer on her team receives over 100 emails daily referencing data on a variety of topics, from out-of-stock issues and inaccurate pricing to recommendations for driving e-commerce. On the supplier side, the situation is similar: delivering Monday morning reporting to retailers, preparing for line reviews, monitoring out-of-stocks, and pushing new promotions. Emails and Excel are still the primary drivers of the $5 trillion retail industry, in the U.S. alone."

"The opportunity for error in complex retail supply chains is immense. If demand forecasting and inventory management across thousands of store locations are inaccurate, the cost is tremendous. The combined cost of overstock and out-of-stocks are $1.77 trillion globally, just in 2023. These "if only" moments are coordination failures, and the root cause lies with siloed data and manual processes."

"Improved collaboration between retailers, suppliers, and AI technology can overcome disconnects. Those gaps can be between product design, procurement, marketing and promotional planning, and product distribution. AI is often described as something a single company should leverage, but verticalized AI agents that specialize in retail can streamline manual tasks and facilitate collaboration across multiple companies so humans can spend time on what drives the business: being strategic."

Buyers and suppliers exchange hundreds of data-driven emails and Excel reports daily, creating high potential for error in complex retail operations. Inaccurate demand forecasting and inventory management across thousands of stores generate tremendous costs, with combined overstock and out-of-stock losses totaling $1.77 trillion globally in 2023. Siloed data, manual processes, and external pressures like tariffs, climate change, and geopolitical instability exacerbate waste and inefficiency. Verticalized, collaborative AI agents can streamline manual tasks, surface actionable alerts, and enable cross-company coordination between product design, procurement, marketing, and distribution so humans focus on strategic work.

Read at Fast Company