Byte-Sized AI: Amazon Makes Rufus Publicly Available; Mango Uses AI Images for New Campaign
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.
Amazon makes Rufus publicly available
Amazon has officially made its shopping assistant, Rufus, available to all U.S. shoppers.
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The e-commerce behemoth first introduced the generative AI-powered tool in February, stating it had released it in beta to a small set of customers and would later roll it out to larger groups.
The chatbot, which is available in Amazon’s mobile app, can help customers parse through product information, compare multiple products, shop for occasion-based items, identify trends and more. According to a blog post from the company, customers have asked Rufus questions like, “What are denim trends for women?” or, “Should I get trail shoes or running shoes?”
From there, the chatbot can provide suggestions on what a consumer should buy based on their inquiry or answer questions about what a product is made of, how it stacks up against similar models from other brands and more. According to Amazon, customers asked Rufus “tens of millions of questions” during the beta phase, which it used to further refine the chatbot.
Rajiv Mehta, vice president of search and conversational shopping at Amazon, said in the blog that Rufus is bringing consumers closer to a traditional in-store experience as they surf the company’s app, streamlining the shopping experience even further.
“While it’s still early days for both generative AI and Rufus, we’re excited to hear customers are using Rufus to help them make more informed shopping decisions,” he wrote. “As we continue to grow and improve upon Rufus, we’re looking forward to seeing how customers continue to use it to find exactly what they need or want in our store.”
Mango promotes new collection with AI-generated images
European fast-fashion purveyor Mango announced Wednesday that all of the product images for its latest collection had been generated using AI.
The company, which is far from the first to use AI for imagery, said it used real-life photos of each product in its new Sunset Dream collection to train a generative AI model. According to Mango, the most difficult part of training that model proved to be ensuring it could preserve the integrity of what pieces would actually look like on a real model’s body.
After the imagery had been generated by the newly trained model, Mango’s teams retouched the photos and inspected them for approval, ensuring they were up to caliber for brand standards and public release.
To date, Mango has developed about 15 AI systems for functions like personalization, customer experience and pricing, it noted in the announcement. Jordi Alex, Mango’s chief information technology officer, said this project was another step on the company’s innovation journey.
“This initiative reflects our continued commitment to innovation and being on the cutting edge in the fashion world,” Alex said in a statement. “Artificial intelligence is a technological revolution that presents great opportunities that should act as a co-pilot to extend the capabilities of our employees and further amplify our creativity. Because technology will either make us more human or it won’t.”
Freight Technologies launches ocean freight management platform
Houston-based Freight Technologies has added AI-powered ocean freight management capabilities to its existing over-the-road (OTR) technology. The new system, which it calls Waavely, helps give companies real-time information about their shipments, while also making the planning and booking processes more efficient.
According to Freight Technologies, Waavely will allow users to receive immediate quotes for maritime shipping, then manage any bookings through the platform. It also streamlines payments, freight management and more via automation.
Though those capabilities provide high-level business benefits, Waavely also offers more granular capabilities, like to-the-minute shipment tracking, information on shipping documentation and real-time updates on issues that could impact shipments. The new platform also integrates with Freight Technologies’ existing OTR platform, Fr8 App, which will allow visibility into multiple logistics streams simultaneously.
Javier Selgas, CEO of Freight Technologies, said Waavely’s launch will continue supercharging clients’ operations.
“Waavely aims to bring unprecedented control, agility, and transparency to ocean freight brokerage through advanced digitalization,” Selgas said in a statement. “By leveraging cutting-edge technology and a free-to-use platform that charges a management fee per load, we help businesses optimize their maritime logistics operations, while reducing costs and improving overall efficiency. Our goal is to support and streamline global shipping and create a more connected and transparent supply chain for our users and customers.”
Exiger acquires Versed AI
Supply chain AI company Exiger announced Monday it had acquired Versed AI for an undisclosed sum.
Exiger helps companies get real-time visibility into their supply chains, identify risks and complete due diligence with AI. Versed AI provides granular insights about suppliers along different tiers of a company’s value chain based on publicly available data aggregated by AI systems. In doing so, it creates product-specific supply chain risk maps.
According to a release from the two companies, the new collaboration will “complete” the Exiger technology suite, enabling the highest degree of supply chain confidence and security for the company’s customers. Brandon Daniels, CEO of Exiger, said the acquisition will help tackle some of supply chain’s most mundane but pressing challenges.
“Procurement and supply chain professionals across the public and private sector are overwhelmed by the amount of data they have to navigate to meet daily operational and regulatory requirements like tariff analysis, alternative vendor sourcing, forced labor checks, environmental impact assessments and CSDDD compliance,” Daniels said in a statement. “This acquisition allows us to offer a beautifully simple solution to those challenges.”
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