Bain helps Carrefour bring OpenAI’s ChatGPT to its shoppers
Carrefour is rolling out three cutting-edge tech solutions based on ChatGPT technology. These include an AI-powered shopping assistant for the website, enhanced product description sheets for Carrefour brand products, and streamlined support for purchasing processes.
The trio of innovative generative AI solutions leverage OpenAI’s advanced technologies, specifically GPT-4 – the latest iteration of the company’s famous language model behind ChatGPT. These tools were developed in collaboration with management consulting firm Bain & Company and technology partner Microsoft.
In February, Bain announced its partnership with American artificial intelligence research lab OpenAI, a move that aimed to help orientate clients when integrating the technology developer’s tools. Now, we are seeing that technology being implemented in real-world use cases for Carrefour, one of the world’s largest food retailers.
The AI shopping assistant chatbot launched by Carrefour, called ‘Hopla’, was integrated into the retail giant’s website on 8 June. The purpose of the tool is to assist shoppers with choices of available products based on budget, diets, and menu ideas.
The second OpenAI innovation launched by Carrefour is a tool designed to enrich the company’s product sheets. This resulted in enhanced descriptions that provide customers with more information on products.
Meanwhile, the third tool is a solution that serves Carrefour’s internal organisation. The AI tool will help procurement teams within Carrefour’s non-retail purchasing division with improving the efficiency of everyday tasks like drafting invitations to tender and automatically analysing quotes.
Generative AI – a developing technology seeing incredible growth – is a type of artificial intelligence that creates new content like text, images, music, or even videos. It learns from large datasets to generate original and unique outputs that resemble the patterns of the data it was trained on.
“Thanks to our digital and data culture, we have already turned a corner when it comes to artificial intelligence. Generative AI will enable us to enrich the customer experience and profoundly transform our working methods,” said Alexandre Bompard, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Carrefour.
“Integrating OpenAI technologies into what we do is an amazing opportunity for Carrefour. By pioneering the use of generative AI, we want to be one step ahead and invent the retail of tomorrow.”
France-headquartered Carrefour has 14,000 stores in about 40 countries. The group last year posted revenues of over €90 billion.