Byte-Sized AI: MadaLuxe’s Gen AI Partner; Nvidia All In on Robots

Byte-Sized AI is a bi-weekly column that covers all things artificial intelligence—from startup funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players.

MadaLuxe Group uses gen AI for product descriptions

MadaLuxe Group, the luxury fashion distribution platform, announced this month it had partnered with Digital Wave Technology, a Florida-based company that provides AI options for its partners.

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The company will be using Digital Wave’s Maestro AI technology, which leverages generative AI to create product description copy. In doing so, the system identified product attributes that should be mentioned or tagged to improve SEO, serving consumers better as they search and shop.

Within a few months, Maestro AI will also be able to match MadaLuxe’s existing brand voice, according to Digital Wave.

Robert Seaborn, senior vice president of operations at MadaLuxe, said the move comes as the company looks toward ways to make the platform more efficient.

“We selected Maestro AI because our portfolio of brands and retailers is growing, and we need a proven partner that will ensure our websites resonate with shoppers while maintaining a consistent brand voice,” Seaborn said. “With Digital Wave Technology, we can significantly decrease the time needed to prepare product copy and attributes from days to hours, further accelerating the growth of our product portfolio.”

The partnership extends beyond copywriting, though; MadaLuxe has also signed on to use the tech provider’s intelligent decisioning capabilities, which will enable the company to identify inefficiencies—like in-stock products not listed on the site or product descriptions missing the right attributes.

Lori Schafer, CEO of Digital Wave, said the partnership will help produce high-quality experiences for consumers.

“As MadaLuxe expands its portfolio of brands and retailers, Digital Wave Technology’s industry-leading enterprise AI will help it generate an exceptional customer experience and scale its business with confidence while increasing speed to market,” said Schafer.

Teradyne and Nvidia work together on robotic improvements

Teradyne Robotics, which owns cobot company Universal Robotics and autonomous mobile robot company MiR, announced Tuesday it has partnered with Nvidia on its latest robotic solution for warehouses.

MiR launched a new, AI-powered robot called the MiR1200 Pallet Jack, which uses AI to tackle pallet handling. The technology embedded into the Pallet Jack is supplemented by Nvidia’s Jetson AGX Orin module, which helps robots route around obstacles.

The Pallet Jack uses 3D vision to identify, pick up and move pallets throughout the warehouse autonomously. It does so using data collected by four cameras. Nvidia’s technology takes the feedback from those cameras and combines it with LiDAR technology to identify obstacles that could mitigate autonomous navigation for the Pallet Jack.

From there, the robot can change its route to steer clear of obstacles in the warehouse, which could be anything from loose objects to overhead obstacles. MiR said the fusion of the technologies stands to deliver optimized logistics results and ensure pallets make it to their destinations on time.

Deepu Talla, Nvidia’s vice president of robotics and edge computing, said the partnership could take robotics to the next level for warehouse applications.

“Nvidia’s [technology] is enabling increased autonomy in robotics with rapid advancements in simulation, generative AI, foundation models and optimized edge compute,” Talla said. “This collaboration with Teradyne Robotics will bring the power of AI and accelerated computing to rapidly growing cobot and AMR markets.”

Akeneo inks partnership with Google Cloud

Akeneo, a product management company that boasts clients like Carhartt, Boohoo and Forever 21, announced this month that it had partnered with Google Cloud to bolster its AI capabilities.

The company plans to use Google’s capabilities to create product descriptions in multiple languages, as well as to integrate streams of images and videos into product information. That could mean adapting imagery to meet cultural specifications of a market, adding new videos to existing listings or adding brand-new images when product listings are being created.

The company recently acquired Unifai, an AI-powered leadership growth platform, and has integrated it into Akeneo’s product suite. Leveraging both the technology it gained from that acquisition and Google Cloud’s industry knowledge, Akeneo plans to launch an AI center of excellence, which will focus on addressing AI-powered products’ challenges and education for manufacturers, brands and retailers.

Kristin Naragon, Akeneo’s chief strategy officer, said the moves the company has recently made solidify its position as a trustworthy product information provider.

“At Akeneo, we’re changing how businesses manage product data using AI. We acquired Unifai, an AI-driven platform for data collection, cleansing, categorization, and enrichment, and partnered with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI, helping us improve the automation, management, and optimization of product information,” Naragon told Sourcing Journal.

Cart.com launches Constellation AI

Unified commerce and logistics solutions company Cart.com has launched a suite of tools powered by machine learning, generative AI and predictive modeling.

The suite, called Constellation AI, offers clients a variety of capabilities related to listing and selling products more efficiently. Its features include new sales channel identification; intelligent, real-time repricing to attract customers shopping on marketplaces like Amazon, Walmart or eBay; demand forecasting that takes into account both history and real-time external data and inventory optimization to help sellers determine when to re-order inventory and where to distribute it across their marketplace storefronts and third-party logistics partners. Additionally, one tool in the suite will leverage generative AI for product titles, descriptions and attributes, as many third-party providers have started to offer.

Omair Tariq, Cart.com’s CEO and founder, said the addition of the Constellation AI suite will help solve some of its clients’ pain points.

“By harnessing the power of data and AI across the full commerce value chain, we are taking the guesswork out of marketing products and managing inventory,” Tariq said. “We’re excited to see how our continued investment in new AI capabilities will deliver value to our entire customer base.”