Members of The Wholesale Group will have the chance to “seamlessly chat” with AI for insight and data thanks to a new tie-up with ShopAi.
Through leveraging advanced natural language processing (NLP) technology, it means the buying group can access “virtual conversational assistants”, which have been trained to provide information on sales, trends, and category performance in “one concise answer”.
ShopAi CEO Ilann Hepworth told The Grocer wholesalers and brands could now avoid “conventional and complex” insight platforms that involve “lots of typing, drop downs, clicking, and selecting” to access data.
They can now “simply ask” various questions in a natural communicative manner, which can also be asked and answered in 46 languages, providing key stakeholders with “valuable insights and data like never before”.
Wholesalers, for example, could ask ‘which suppliers am I selling more through?’, while suppliers could query ‘what members are selling our products the most across the buying group?’.
Head office staff at The Wholesale Group, which was recently created by combining Confex and Fairway Foodservice members, can also take advantage of the online chatbot, with questions such as ‘tell me a list of members who sell to garden centres in Lancashire’.
The new partnership will kick off on 14 January.
“ShopAi is thrilled to offer our advanced services to the wholesale sector,” said Hepworth, who was formerly MD for convenience app Jisp from 2019 to 2024.
“Our innovative NLP technology provides a multilingual solution that democratises data access for businesses, enabling them to gain valuable insights and stay ahead in a rapidly evolving market.”
The Wholesale Group joint MD Tom Gittins said: “We are very excited to be developing an AI interface with ShopAi, which will help The Wholesale Group to lead the way on partner communications.
“This will be the first step on our AI journey and we look forward to further developing and integrating this technology across our systems to drive efficiencies throughout our network.”
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