TL;DR:
- Ida, a French startup, aims to optimize fresh food orders for supermarkets and grocery stores using AI.
- The company recently secured $2.9 million in seed funding from prominent investors.
- Traditional order sheets with numerous columns often lead to food waste and shortages in grocery stores.
- Ida’s tablet app, connected to a sales forecasting algorithm, guides grocers in making informed reordering decisions.
- Initially focused on vegetables and fruits, Ida plans to expand its services to include meat and fish.
- Ida employs a probabilistic inventory model, simplifying inventory management by combining sales data for similar products.
- The AI system considers various factors, including weather conditions, seasonality, pricing, and competition, to generate precise orders.
- Grocers can configure safety stock levels to prevent running out of specific items while avoiding over-ordering.
- Ida collaborates with staff members who can manually review and adjust recommendations.
- Currently, approximately 70 to 75% of Ida’s suggestions are accepted without modification by grocers.
Main AI News:
Ida, a promising French startup, is spearheading a transformation in the grocery retail industry by leveraging the power of artificial intelligence (AI). With a recent seed round investment of $2.9 million (€2.7 million) from notable backers like Frst, Daphni, Motier Ventures, and Kima Ventures, Ida is on a mission to collaborate with supermarkets and grocery stores in a bid to streamline the ordering process for fresh produce, encompassing fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, and fish.
Currently, the grocery industry relies heavily on error-prone order sheets with numerous columns, representing the reordering schedule. This archaic approach often results in both food wastage and product shortages, ultimately affecting the bottom line. As Mateo Beacco, the co-founder and CEO of Ida, succinctly puts it, “The person in charge of vegetables will take these sheets of paper and a pen. They’ll then go through the stock line by line, reference by reference. Then they’ll do some guesswork…”
While experienced personnel may refer to past trends to make informed decisions, the high turnover rate in these positions makes it challenging to maintain accuracy consistently. Recognizing these challenges, Ida seeks to revolutionize the process by providing grocers with the tools they need.
Ida is an innovative tablet app connected to a sales forecasting algorithm designed to guide human decision-makers when it’s time to replenish fresh products. While initially focusing on vegetables and fruits, Ida has ambitions to expand its capabilities to include meat and fish. This emphasis on perishable goods addresses a crucial yet underserved aspect of supermarket inventory management.
Unlike traditional approaches that rely solely on point-of-sale data, Ida employs a probabilistic inventory model that factors in real-life scenarios. For instance, organic and non-organic cucumber sales are combined, simplifying inventory management. This sophisticated approach allows Ida to provide approximate inventory numbers, reducing the need for manual counting.
Moreover, Ida takes into consideration a wide range of variables, including weather conditions, seasonality, pricing, local competition, and special offers. This data is harnessed to generate precise orders, with the option for stores to configure safety stock levels, ensuring they never run out of a specific item while avoiding over-ordering.
In essence, Ida solves a mathematical optimization problem by considering various constraints, such as ordering in specific increments and optimizing shelf space efficiently.
Crucially, Ida does not operate in isolation; it facilitates staff intervention and manual adjustments. Currently, approximately 70 to 75% of Ida’s recommendations are accepted without modification by grocers. Following this collaborative effort, Ida generates order forms for central purchasing offices and potentially local producers, facilitating a seamless supply chain.
While Ida is still in its nascent stages, it is not alone in its mission. Other startups in the U.S. like Guac are also venturing into this space. The future holds the intriguing possibility of grocery stores adopting software solutions like Ida to manage fresh products at scale. This shift promises to bolster the profitability of supermarkets while minimizing their ecological footprint—an undeniable win-win proposition for both retailers and the environment.
Conclusion:
Ida’s innovative approach to fresh food ordering through AI has the potential to disrupt the grocery market. By optimizing inventory management, reducing waste, and enhancing profitability, it offers a win-win solution for both retailers and the environment. As more startups enter this space, we can expect increased adoption of such software solutions in the industry, heralding a new era of efficiency and sustainability.
