LONDON (Reuters) – Britain's Sainsbury's said on Friday it has agreed a five-year strategic partnership with Microsoft to leverage the company's artificial intelligence capabilities and the supermarket group's wealth of data.
Seeking to increase revenue and reduce costs, more retailers are using generated AI to improve personalized shopping experiences for consumers and make their staff work more efficiently.
Sainsbury's, the UK's second-largest grocer after Tesco, has announced that it will use AI to create a more interactive shopping experience for online shoppers, as well as improve its search functionality.
In stores, staff have real-time data and insight into key processes such as shelf replenishment.
Sainsbury's said it would also reduce time to market for new services and products.
Financial details of the partnership were not disclosed.
Sainsbury's updated the market on its strategy in February, setting a new cost-cutting target of £1 billion ($1.3 billion) over three years and pledging to increase returns for shareholders.
Last month, the company said it expected profits to rise by up to 10% in the current fiscal year, which began March 3, and expressed confidence that it could continue to win more customers from competitors.
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(Reporting by James Davey; Editing by Jamie Freed)