Honeywell and Qualcomm Link on AI-Powered Retail Associate Technology
Honeywell announced Monday it plans to develop an artificial intelligence tool with Qualcomm Technologies to aid in-store retail associates with a variety of tasks.
Honeywell’s latest innovation, expected to launch in early 2025, will be a multi-modal AI model that helps answer employee questions on the spot. Multi-modal models are built to interact with the user in a variety of ways, as compared with a large language model (LLM), which shares text-based outputs back to the user for each conversation. The company plans to call it the Multi-Modal Intelligent Agent.
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Honeywell and Qualcomm’s specific model will offer four main modalities: text, voice, image and video. As needed, the model will be able to combine modalities.
Users can ask the system questions like, “Does this garment contain spandex?” but can also inquire about where a specific pair of jeans is stocked and located in the store. Depending on the complexity of the question the user asks and the answer needed, the model can adjust the delivery modality as needed.
Nakul Duggal, group general manager of automotive, industrial and embedded IoT and cloud computing for Qualcomm, said bringing the company’s technical prowess together with Honeywell’s existing infrastructure and devices felt like a natural step forward for the retail industry.
“This collaboration with Honeywell underscores our commitment to pioneering innovative solutions that will propel the expansion of the connected intelligent edge,” said. “Honeywell’s new Multi-Modal Intelligent Agent represents a significant step forward in utilizing advanced edge AI to streamline operations and elevate customer interactions across industries. This initiative enables us to drive digital transformation, enhancing how businesses interact with their environments through intelligent and responsive technology.”
Honeywell sells a variety of retail-centric technology products, like barcode scanning technology for package pickups and self-checkout; delivery software; surveillance; handheld RFID readers and more. The technology will be integrated into in-store, handheld devices sold by Honeywell and is expected to launch in early 2025.
The new model is meant to help provide a stronger customer experience, enabling retail associates to access information more rapidly, whether pertaining to a product’s specifications, or to its availability in a store.
Honeywell is far from the only company considering how generative AI can aid the associate or customer experience across the retail landscape. Earlier this year, Target announced it had equipped its in-store associates with a generative AI-powered chatbot called Store Companion; Tractor Supply Company already has a similar tool called Hey Gura.
Even on the backend of retail, chatbot agents have started to pop up—large software companies like Blue Yonder and SAP have announced this year that they had been working to develop agents to aid with individual roles throughout the supply chain.
Jason Urso, Honeywell Industrial Automation chief technology officer, said the company’s latest project will combine human capabilities with AI’s ability to automate tasks that take time away from customers and associates interacting with ease.
“By pairing Honeywell’s easy-to-use mobile devices and intelligent software with Qualcomm Technologies’ industry-leading edge AI processors, Honeywell is creating solutions to make workers’ jobs easier while also helping businesses produce the stellar experience they want for their customers,” Urso said in a statement. “With AI, Honeywell is amplifying what’s possible for businesses with mobile workers today.”
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