Walmart “100x more productive” with generative AI, IKEA consolidates tech stack for OPEX – PEX Community News

PEX Network’s weekly news bulletin rounds up the latest from the process community including operational excellence, digital transformation, business process management (BPM), process mining, artificial intelligence (AI) and much more.

This week includes:

• Walmart “100-times more productive” using generative AI
• IKEA consolidates tech stack to support operational excellence
• 22^nd BPM Conference held in Krakow
• Austin Utilities earns operational excellence award
• Nationwide invests in digital transformation for robust performance and business agility

Walmart “100-times more productive” using generative AI

Walmart is “100-times more productive” using generative AI with the technology helping the supermarket giant to complete a major transformation project using just 1 percent of the staff previously needed. That’s according to a recent earnings call where Walmart bosses discussed its ambitious automation scheme. Walmart has had significant success in leveraging data and large language models (LLMs) from others and building its own, said CEO Douglas McMillon.

“One example is that we’ve used generative AI to improve our product catalog,” stated McMillon. “We’ve used multiple LLMs to accurately create or improve over 850 million pieces of data in the catalog. Without the use of generative AI, this work would have required nearly 100-times the current head count to complete in the same amount of time.”

Generative AI has been a “great enabler” over the last few months, added John Furner, president and CEO, Walmart US. “It’s about 100-times more productive to use generative AI versus having people work through each product display page. The generative AI product that we’re using has helped us populate the attributes and the characteristics of hundreds of millions of items.”

Walmart also sees opportunities for generative AI to help sellers grow their businesses, said McMillon. “We’re testing a new experience to select US-based sellers that allows them to ask us anything. We want our sellers focused on selling, so the more we can make it a seamless experience, the better.” The new assistant will quickly summarize and provide the seller with succinct answers without them having to sort through long articles or other materials, McMillon said. “The use cases for this technology are wide-ranging and affect nearly all parts of our business, and we’ll continue to experiment and deploy AI and generative AI applications globally.”

Tariq Munir, PepsiCo, discusses measuring the impact of AI and intelligent automation

IKEA consolidates tech stack to support operational excellence

Swedish home furnishing business IKEA formed a new partnership with financial technology platform Adyen to enhance in-store and digital sales channels and drive operational excellence. Adyen’s closed-loop payment system consolidates IKEA’s technology stack, providing processing, acquiring, local payment methods and like-for-like settlement capabilities for IKEA franchisees, according to a press release. This will reduce the amount of contracts and integrations for global IT operations, enabling simplified financial reporting and management of customer data, it added. It will also help to minimize the risk of operational disturbances.

‘“We are proud to partner with the IKEA business to help scale their efforts to understand their customers and the behaviors that lead to long-term relationships with the iconic brand,” said Tobias Lindh, managing director, Adyen Nordics & Baltics.

22^nd BPM 2024 Conference held in Krakow

The 22^nd Business Process Management Conference took place this week in Krakow, Poland. The event showcased research, talks, tutorials and discussions featuring thought leaders and innovators in the field of BPM. BPM expert Caspar Jans, who features in the 25 operational excellence thought leaders to follow in 2024 list, shared his insights on the conference in the latest episode of the BPM 360 Podcast. He highlighted a deep dive into how BPM can shape company culture and ethical decision-making.

Next week, PEX Network hosts All Access: BPM 2024, its flagship webinar series. Join business and thought leaders from around the globe to explore the current BPM landscape, key trends, opportunities and challenges.

Ekaterina 'Katie' Curry, Millennial Specialty Insurance, and Donald Kuk, formerly BNY Mellon, discuss using automation and BPM

Austin Utilities earns operational excellence award

Austin Utilities received the System Operational Achievement Recognition (SOAR) award from the American Public Gas Association (APGA) for excellence in operating its natural gas utility. Austin Utilities was presented SOAR level silver based on demonstrated excellence in the areas of system integrity, system improvement, employee safety and workforce development, reported Austin Daily Herald. 

“This recognition was achieved through many years of dedication and hard work from our employees,” commented Mark Nibauer, general manager of Austin Utilities. “I am proud that our company has focused on delivering reliable, safe and economical gas services for our customers.”

Nationwide invests in digital transformation for robust performance and business agility

Nationwide, the world’s largest building society, has collaborated with Red Hat to power its digital transformation ambitions. The Red Hat OpenShift platform is helping Nationwide achieve service availability of 99.999 percent and enable faster deployment of upgrades and launches, according to a press release. Results include processing 100 million calls daily (including 14 million external queries) and achieving processing times up to 500 percent faster, it added.

“As digital requirements continue to evolve, whether volume of payments, banking app users, regulation or system scalability, we have to be prepared for as yet unknown demands and channels,” said Grant Valentine, head of business integration platform at Nationwide Building Society. “Our business integration platform powers many of our strategic initiatives and running it on Red Hat OpenShift gives us hybrid cloud choice, robust performance and business agility so we can provide a faster and more convenient experience for our members.”

READ MORE PEX COMMUNITY NEWS

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