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If Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around as a concept for 50 years, why is it only becoming prominent now? According to Complexica’s CEO, Matt Michalewicz, the two key drivers have been improvements in business and technology. Businesses have more digitalised processes than in the past, and this has assisted the growth of AI. Technologically, computer power has become cheaper, and the data to train AI is readily available with the explosion of the internet. The capabilities and algorithms of AI have improved to incorporate ‘deep learning’; considering what consumers see and what they say using their natural language, to recognise patterns in how they think. AI and machine learning automates analysis. It makes assumptions, assesses models and re-evaluates data to provide detailed predictions at speed and scale, without human intervention. It learns from itself, with predictions becoming increasingly accurate and more specific over time.

Artificial intelligence is being used by retailers across the entire product supply chain and customer service cycle, including key areas such as pricing and promotional planning. Artificial Intelligence can determine the best price for individual items using data including seasonality, price elasticity customer product preferences and purchase histories, along with real-time inputs on inventory levels and competitive products and prices. This results in more specific discounts or marginal price increases on individual SKUs to increase demand and maximise profits. Metcash’s ALM last year announced a partnership with AI provider Complexica for standardising and optimising its promotions by using its PCM capabilities to plan and analyse campaigns, along with predicting and optimising their effectiveness.

Complexica Pty Ltd, a leading provider of Artificial Intelligence software for optimising sales, marketing, & supply chain decisions, announced today that its award-winning Promotional Campaign Manager (PCM) software has gone live on time and on budget within Metcash’s liquor division - Australian Liquor Marketers (ALM). Next month, Complexica and ALM will kick off phase 2 of the project, which will introduce advanced prediction and optimisation capabilities into the deployed system.  

“We are  excited to progress our partnership with  Complexica to the next phase, with the initial roll out of their Promotional Campaign Manager (PCM) software being well received by the business and delivering on the promise of removing duplication and manual work from our processes. Phase two of the project will allow us to build promotional programs using advanced prediction and optimisation algorithms, to ensure the best possible outcomes for our retailers,” said Joel Zamek, General Manager of Merchandising at Australian Liquor Marketers.