PEX Network’s key takeaways:
- Tesco is partnering with Mistral AI to enhance operations and customer experience.
- Partnership will provide Tesco with full access to the AI company’s commercial models.
- Tesco’s AI strategy is centered on enhancing experiences for customers, colleagues, and suppliers.
Tesco has signed a three-year agreement with French startup Mistral AI as part of a broader strategy to bolster the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the retailer’s operations.
The partnership will provide Tesco with full access to the AI company’s commercial models, including future advancements, along with direct support from its AI engineers.
As part of the agreement, the two companies will establish a joint AI lab, bringing together experts from Mistral AI and Tesco’s technology teams to collaboratively design and build new generative AI solutions across various areas of the Tesco business.
Tesco’s AI strategy is centered on enhancing experiences for customers, colleagues, and suppliers, while also driving improvements across its broader operations, the supermarket giant stated.
Tesco taps Mistral AI
Tesco’s collaboration with Mistral AI will explore multiple use cases, such as content creation and document drafting, accelerating data analysis to deliver deeper insights for colleagues, and developing intuitive ways for employees to access information that helps them better support customers, according to a press release.
“By bringing together our retail expertise and Mistral AI’s cutting-edge technology, we hope this partnership could ultimately save colleagues time, improve how we do things, and help us to better serve our customers,” said Ruben Lara Hernandez, director of data, analytics, and AI at Tesco.
Innovation has always been part of Tesco’s DNA, and this agreement builds on its extensive track record in developing new technology and AI solutions, in ways that ultimately benefit customers, colleagues, and suppliers, Hernandez added.
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How is Tesco using AI?
Tesco has doubled the size of its technology team over the past five years in recognition of the huge potential for new technology to improve the overall experience for customers.
The retailer is already using AI, developed both in-house and with partners, across its operations.
For example, AI allows Tesco to find the most efficient routing for online orders to create more delivery slots for customers, helps with complex demand forecasting to ensure great product availability, and is allowing the retailer to engage with customers in an increasingly personalized way through Tesco Clubcard.
“We are proud to partner with Tesco, a leader in retail innovation,” commented Marjorie Janiewicz, chief revenue officer and US GM at Mistral AI. “Our applied AI team will collaborate with Tesco’s experts to build customizable, controllable, and frontier AI products to improve internal workflows and Tesco’s customers’ experience.”