Tech Solutions Guide

opportunity or a problem, and

2019
then working backwards to see
how a range of modern analytics
solutions might be applied
to address it.

AI/MACHINE WAGNER: While there is

certainly enough quality data
available to build models that

LEARNING provide meaningful learning

and results, consumer packaged
goods manufacturers are strug-

SOLUTIONS gling to find relevant use cases to

model after. When we establish

GUIDE
a small proof of concept that
delivers evidence of value and
demonstrates the overall worth
of artificial intelligence across
the organization, it goes a long
CGT presents a comparison chart of solution providers on the forefront way toward greater implementa-
of artificial intelligence and machine learning for the consumer tion of AI within the industry.
goods industry. Plus, industry experts provide thought leadership on In addition, support from
the c-suite early in the initiation
challenges, opportunities, and implementation issues for companies
process will gain their buy-in on
navigating this new playing field. implementation throughout the
entire organization. Beginning
simply with a pilot program to
build upon is the first step in
the direction of more pervasive
deployment. When we do these
DAVID MORAN
Chairman &
Co-founder
Q Are there any obstacles remaining
to the widespread implementation of
artificial intelligence at consumer goods
pilots, we focus on high-level
numbers and inquiries that im-
pact the entire company as well
Eversight
organizations? If so, how do companies as the sales and performance of
get past them? a large region or category.

RICH WAGNER
President & CEO
Prevedere
MORAN: There is no barrier to widespread
implementation per se. Rather, the opportunity
is to create the user applications to solve specific
Q In which business
function have com-
panies enjoyed the most
business challenges. Otherwise, pushing AI is a bit measurable success so far?
like a hammer running around looking for nails. In which areas has imple-
SPONSORED BY I’d rather start with what you want to solve. mentation been lagging?
Machine learning — the branch of AI that has
generated the most buzz — is really good at WAGNER: We’ve seen the
looking at lots of data to pick out patterns. But most calculable success within
without a context and an application, it’s a bit the finance areas of CPG and
like saying “big data.” All data has been big for a retail companies, undoubtedly
while, that’s why [the field of] statistics was in- due to the fact that our solution
vented. I’m far more interested in starting with an utilizes AI to focus specifically

24 CGT | APRIL 2019 | CONSUMERGOODS.COM

Tech Solutions Guide

on predicting future headwinds

and tailwinds to demand. In our
experience, even small use cases
Q What are the next
steps in technology
development? How do we
and responsibilities as well as
support increased investment in
data literacy.
yield significant value to the bot- improve the tools that we
tom line in these areas.
On the other hand, we have
observed that the biggest chal-
already have?

MORAN: I was once told that

Q Do you have any
examples of how AI
has dramatically changed
lenge comes when clearly defined software ages like fish. There’s a client’s go-to-market
business objectives for using AI a reason that technology as a strategy?
are not established. Identifying whole has broadly turned over
objectives with executive visibility to software-as-a-service applica- WAGNER: We worked closely
is paramount to quantifiable tions. Improving old, on-premise with a large beverage producer
success and, ultimately, to more software is often a waste of time to implement the use of AI to
widespread implementation. and a magnitude more expensive help the company understand
Executives who are willing to than just swapping to a modern how external data — specifically,
maintain an unbiased attitude stack. A lot of retailers especially economic changes — impact con-
and embrace the latest progres- have been slow to do this, and sumer demand for its products.
sive solutions will enjoy the most as a result the big innovations We discovered that factors such
success as AI becomes more in POS software, for example, as the number of hours that ar-
prevalent within the industry. have (ironically) happened in chitects build is a strong influenc-
the small to midsize business er in driving product demand. As
MORAN: Certainly, program- market instead. a result of this improved insight,
matic advertising has been the client was able to develop
transformed by AI. Machines WAGNER: Unlike 10 to 20 predictive models that tightened
do a great job of looking at lots years ago, companies can now its demand variable and, thus,
and lots of inventory for ads and leverage cloud-based AI solu- dramatically reduce safety stock
determining the best balance of tions to augment or enhance and improved distribution with-
cost, quality, and reach to maxi- current systems without the out impact to service levels.
mize marketing objectives. tremendous expense of having
Programmatic selling isn’t to replace them. Tools across the MORAN: Our retailer clients are
there yet, but I think it will get analytics workflow have required using shelf-edge experimenta-
there in the next five years. In a significant amount of manual tion tools to better compete with
a lot of ways, selling should be analysis and human interpreta- e-commerce in dynamic pricing
easier to have machines do than tion, an approach that isn’t scal- while optimizing the total store
advertising. Prices just go up or able in today’s environment. experience. Merchants spend
down, and perhaps promotions Undoubtedly, the next steps less of their time on pricing
are much more complex, but at in AI technology development administration and more on the
the same time they’re still quite will involve embracing and highest-value judgment tasks,
measurable: either the sale hap- implementing cloud technology and as a result their categories
pened or it didn’t. So, compared as well as augmented tech- are performing better. In a recent
to the nuances of brand building niques to modernize solutions. steering committee meeting, a
and activities at the top of the New development will comple- retailer saw it was driving 1.5%
brand funnel, the selling function ment — not replace — existing higher sales, higher transaction
could dramatically retool. There’s data and analytics initiatives. volumes, and approximately
a lot of friction to this being fea- As the technology progresses, 50% higher EBITDA margins vs.
sible today, from siloed data and solution providers will help CPG control stores by taking this AI-led
access to manual processes to and retail executives develop a “software-as-a-coach” approach
POS limitations, but I’m hopeful. strategy to evolve roles, skills for merchants. CGT

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 Tech Solutions Guide

2019 AI/MACHINE LEARNING

SOLUTIONS CHART
*Information compiled by CGT BUSINES S FUNCTIONS

Trade Promotion Management

Direct Consumer Engagement

Demand Planning/Forecasting
Retail Account Management/

New Product Development

Supply Chain/Logistics

Marketing/Promotions
S TA ND -

Planning
KE Y CG UNIQUE FEATURES / A LONE V S.

Pricing
CO M PAN Y / W E B S I T E P R O DUCT CUST OME RS BE NE FITS A D D -ON

C RM
The NAVIK AI Platform uses AI and
NAVIK AI machine learning to create scalable
Absolutdata Platform business impact across the enterprise.
Did not provide Stand-alone X X X X X X
www.absolutdata.com for the Solutions that run on the AI Platform
Enterprise include NAVIK MarketingAI, SalesAI,
ResearchAI, TradeAI and PriceAI.

The platform is designed for the

business user, who is able to type/speak
AnswerRocket Answer- natural language questions and receive
Unilever Stand-alone X X X X X X X
www.answerrocket.com Rocket answers in seconds. The AI-generated
insights answer complex, open-ended
questions by pinpointing the root cause.

The suites help to reduce data cleansing,

improve near-term demand predic-
E2open tion, automate multi-tier inventory
E2open optimization recommendations, identify
Intelligent Did not provide out-of-stocks, improve demand planning, Stand-alone X X X X
www.e2open.com Applications respond to collaborative manufacturing
events, and provide supply planning
recommendations.

Eversight solutions automatically sense

Offer when prices and promotions have gone
Eversight •Coca-Cola Co. stale, and AI engines test thousands of
Innovation,
www.eversightlabs.com •General Mills new permutations with real shoppers. Stand-alone X X X
Retail Winners are surfaced and automatically
SEE AD ON PG 25 Pricing Mars Inc. deployed in-store and/or users coached
on how to best take high-impact action.

The tools let users tackle data sets at

scale to improve brand management,
Fractal Analytics * CoE - innovation, customer service, retailer
relationships, and anomaly detection;
www.fractalanalytics. Concordia Did not provide and to understand consumer sentiment Stand-alone X X X X X X
com & Cuddle using deep learning and natural
language processing for personalized BI
and cognitive search across functions.

Contract Assistant is an AI-driven

solution that automates contract
Genpact Contract creation and deduction reconciliation
Did not provide processes. It works with existing Add-on X X X X
www.genpact.com Assistant TPM and ordering applications to
drive productivity and eliminate
revenue leakage.

The platform leverages IBM Watson

IBM IBM Watson cognitive AI machine learning
Supply technology to provide visibility across
www.ibm.com/ Did not provide Add-on X X X
Chain the entire supply chain, enabling users
customerengagement Insights to predict and mitigate disruptions to
the business.

28 CGT | APRIL 2019 | CONSUMERGOODS.COM

 Tech Solutions Guide

*Information compiled by CGT BUSINES S FUNCTIONS

Trade Promotion Management

Direct Consumer Engagement

Demand Planning/Forecasting
Retail Account Management/

New Product Development

Supply Chain/Logistics

Marketing/Promotions
*Information compiled by CGT

S TA ND -

Planning
KE Y CG UNIQUE FEATURES / A LONE V S.

Pricing
CO M PAN Y / W E B S I T E P R O DUCT CUST OME RS BE NE FITS A D D -ON

C RM
The suite leverages IRI Liquid Data,
•Conagra Brands IRI Unify visualization, alerts and
IRI Strategic automated prescriptive analytic
IRI Analytics •Hormel capabilities, which are augmented Stand-alone X X X X X X X
www.iriworldwide.com with newer AI and machine learning
Suite •Starbucks algorithms, allowing for quicker,
smarter, real-time decisions.

Ivy Insights uses AI models to anticipate

out-of-stocks, predict business outcomes,
Ivy Mobility reduce order times, and provide faster
Ivy Insights Did not provide decision-making capabilities in the field. Add-on X X X
www.ivymobility.com It also provides mobile functionality to
provide sales reps with SKU predictions
and recommendations.

• Citizen Watch Logility Voyager Solutions helps to

Logility America
Logility, Inc. quickly drive actionable insights for
Voyager Stand-alone X X
www.logility.com • Moen better decision making, planning and
Solutions optimization of the global supply chain.
• Vista Outdoor

Oracle Retail Oracle's Retail Science Platform

Oracle Retail Science provides a suite of applications that
accelerate business performance,
www.oracle.com Platform Did not provide including customer segmentation, Stand-alone X X X X X X
/industries/retail Cloud advanced clustering, affinity analysts,
Service decision trees and others.

ERIN
Prevedere The AI engine monitors macroeconomic
Predictive
www.prevedere.com Did not provide trends, identifying future changes Stand-alone X X X
Analytics in demand.
SEE AD ON PG 27 Cloud

The plaform works with existing

XEM r4 systems and learns continuously,
r4 Technologies Cross- providing the c-suite with a current,
Did not provide Stand-alone X X X X X X X
www.r4.ai Enterprise holistic view of the market and
AI business to enable better decisions
and faster actions.

Revionics The solution is an AI toolbox with

Life Cycle real-world pricing. The models offer
Revionics, Inc. a decade of real-world customer
www.revionics.com Price Op- Did not provide production data and are continuously Stand-alone X X X X
timization learning to provide more accurate
Solutions pricing decisions.

SAP Leonardo is a combination of

intelligent technologies, services
SAP SAP and industry expertise that can help
www.sap.com Leonardo Did not provide optimize processes and resources, as Stand-alone X X X X X X X
well as ignite innovation in a variety of
business areas.

CONSUMERGOODS.COM | APRIL 2019 | CGT 29

 Tech Solutions Guide

2019 AI/MACHINE LEARNING

SOLUTIONS CHART
*Information compiled by CGT B USINES S FUNCTIONS

Trade Promotion Management

Direct Consumer Engagement

Demand Planning/Forecasting
Retail Account Management/

New Product Development

Supply Chain/Logistics

Marketing/Promotions
S TA ND -

Planning
KE Y CG UNIQUE FEATUR ES / A LONE V S.

Pricing
COM PAN Y / W E B S I T E P R ODUCT CUST OME RS BE NEFITS A D D -ON

CRM
The platform provides fast, accurate
SAS Viya forecasts for more confident supply
SAS and demand decisions, including new
www.sas.com/en_us Analytics Did not provide product forecasting, demand signal Add-on X X X X X X X X
Platform analytics, and inventory planning and
optimization.

•Mall of America The AI network is completely scalable

across complex tasks. The speed and
Satisfi Labs, Inc. * Satisfi Labs •Miracle Mile Shops accuracy of its online automation,
Platform with the personality of a live person, Add-on X X X
www.satis.fi •The Irvine
increases customer engagement, trans-
Company actions and loyalty.

Market- Sourced from a blockchain-protected

place and marketplace for securing IP, the
Shortest Track Intelligence platform leverages analytic solutions
Services Did not provide optimized on margin and revenue to Stand-alone X X X X X X X X
www.shortesttrack.com Manage- solve business problems, and also moni-
ment tors intelligence-as-a-service to ensure
Platform business impact and ROI.

Signals Analytics Signals Signals Playbook is a cloud-based data

platform that combines data sets,
www.signals- Playbook Did not provide machine learning and analytic engines Stand-alone X
analytics.com Platform to provide decision support.

The system tracks shelf placement, as-

sortment, promotion, facings, and share
Snap2Insight Inc. Shelf Image of shelf by using image recognition.
Recognition Did not provide It also helps prioritize stores with the Stand-alone X X X
www.snap2insight.com
highest impact and help better prepare
for buyer meetings with execution data.

Strategic Revenue Management incre-

Strategic mentally increases revenues and mar-
Symphony CPG|AI Revenue gins by sensing, predicting and shaping
Manage- Did not provide consumer behavior to optimize product, Stand-alone X X X X X X X
www.cpgai.com
ment price, promotion, space, assortment,
and inventory strategies.

This AI-enhanced TPM tool provides an

end-to-end predictive solution combin-
Trade • L'Oréal ing zero-touch planning optimization
Visualfabriq
Promotion •Ocean Spray and evaluation from a single point of Stand-alone X X X X X X X
www.visualfabriq.com Master entry. It offers integration of internal
• Unilever
and external data with inbound and
outbound interfaces.

Auto The solution provides prediction and

Wipro Ltd. ML-based inferences to shape revenue, as well as
Outcome Did not provide causality analysis on factors that impact Add-on X X X X X X X X
www.wipro.com Shaping the outcome and revenue.
Tool

30 CGT | APRIL 2019 | CONSUMERGOODS.COM