> TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION
INVENTING the Future WANT TO UNDERSTAND WHERE THE RETAIL INDUSTRY IS HEADED? START BY LISTENING TO THE VISION OF DR. PALLAB CHATTERJEE, THE CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF SYMPHONY RETAILAI, A COMPANY WHOSE ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SOLUTIONS ARE HELPING RETAIL AND CPG TRANSFORM. > Mike Troy
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Dr. Pallab Chatterjee may not be a household name in the retail industry, but these days the veteran technology executive is having a major impact on how retail and consumer goods companies operate, work together and serve shoppers. As Chairman and CEO of Symphony RetailAI, Chatterjee leads a company at the forefront of developing artificial intelligence-enabled solutions that solve some of the industry’s thorniest challenges and change how work is being done. “We are focused right now on four roles in retail; the
Veteran technology industry executive Dr. Pallab Chatterjee serves as Chairman and CEO of Symphony RetailAI.
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category manager, marketing manager, store manager and supply chain manager. Our whole theme in retail is, how can we make people in each of these roles smarter to give our customers an unfair advantage,” Chatterjee said. “I have to give you an unfair advantage if you are my customer because if I don’t give you an advantage over your competitor why are you my customer?” It is that mindset that led to the introduction of the industry’s first voice-enabled solution for category managers, a product known as CINDE, an acronym for Conversational INsights and Decision Engine. The company has also launched a virtual reality solution to help retailers evaluate the impact of store remodeling and merchandising decisions, a promotional planning solution for marketers and a supply chain-linked app for store managers and employees that helps direct work. AI underpins each of the company’s solutions along with a thought process that begins by taking a step back from a problem and asking, “what if?” “We developed our CINDE product because I was hearing over and over again about category managers who don’t have time to do anything and whenever they wanted to know something analytical they sent a request out and would hear back in two weeks,” Chatterjee said. “We thought people are getting used to Alexa and Siri at home so why can’t there be a conversational interface at work.” CINDE was born, giving category managers the ability to verbalize queries and receive rapid responses. The system was announced last fall and is in use with three retailers of significant scale, according to Chatterjee. “What’s exciting is the quality of intelligence increases with the amount of users who work with it,” Chatterjee said. The company also recently introduced a solution called SR Personalized MarketingAI, a predictive analytics engine designed to make it easy for retailers to deliver customized messages and offers to each shopper in real