Retail Forum 2024: Experimenting with Gen-AI in the Cloud

System Management participated as executive sponsor in the Forum Retail event on October 30, 2024 at Allianz MiCo in Milan. It was a wonderful opportunity to meet with retailers and discuss current issues and trends. On this occasion, we brought our experience as a cloud enabler, talking about how to experience Gen-AI starting from the Cloud, using platforms such as Azure, AWS and Google Cloud. During the event, we presented our AI Virtual Assistant – Baggy-AI.

What is Baggy-AI?

Baggy-AI is a Virtual Assistant that specializes in customizing the style of a bag. It interacts with natural language and includes requests such as “I would like a bag Capri style” or “I would like a bag for an aperitif in Portofino.” Starting with a user request, Baggy-AI creates a unique style of the Muffin bag by selecting available materials, colors, finishes, and metals based on user preferences and brand style rules.

Project Goals.

• Building a Use-Case of Gen-AI Application for Retail: Implementing a real-world case study of a Virtual Assistant integrated into a retail app, experiencing a new, highly personalized and immersive user experience.

• Experimenting with a Gen-AI Project Development Methodology: Discovering Gen-AI implementation opportunities, particularly those offered by Microsoft, by outlining new AI project development methodologies.

• Increase Team Competencies in Gen-AI & Cloud Scope: Improve internal teams’ knowledge and skills regarding Gen-AI and cloud services offered by providers such as Microsoft, AWS and Google.

• Understanding FMOps Methodologies for Training and Fine-Tuning Models: Experiment with the tools and methodologies for training and fine-tuning a Fundational Model (FM) to meet specific tasks and user expectations.

• Managing AI Outputs and Rendering a 3D Product: Implement the management of AI-generated outputs by leveraging synthetic data for rendering 3D models and auto-generating product sheets and descriptions.

• Integrating an AI-Virtual Assistant into APPs and Personalization Processes: Validate the integrability of an AI Virtual Assistant into new or existing apps, automating, enhancing, and personalizing user interaction.

Description of the Idea

The adoption of Virtual Assistants in retail can revolutionize traditional shopping dynamics by offering highly personalized, guided and conversational experiences. In this way, customers will no longer have to search for products, but can be inspired or simply ask for what they want!

The project aims to build a Virtual Assistant by taking full advantage of the services and tools offered by the Azure Cloud. The initiative involves specializing an “FM” foundation model to build an AI capable of operating in a Retail environment. In this specific case, Baggy-AI is based on GPT-4 and specializes in creating combinations and styles of a bag. The bag, called Muffin, is a 3D prototype designed and modeled by System Management’s design team to provide a real-world example of a Retail object.

The bag customization process consists of the following steps:

1. Create custom pairings and styles, “I would like a bag for an aperitif in Capri style.”
2. Manage materials and colors: “I would like a bag with clear fabric lining and blue denim fabric lining.”
3. He advises and guides the client’s choices, “I would like to give a gift to a friend, she loves pink and often dresses in light colors.”

The project also includes the development of a native iOS application to provide an innovative user experience and validate the integration of Baggy-AI into a digital channel (new or existing). Finally, to complete the bag customization ceremony, a service capable of automatically generating and sharing via email a PDF product sheet was developed, using AI to synthetically populate the PDF fields and images, resulting in a customized result of one’s bag.

Project Methodology

Baggy-AI is a pioneering initiative promoted and funded internally by System Management S.p.A. and presented at IKN‘s Forum Retail event, with the aim of exploring the potential of Generative AI (Gen-AI) in the Cloud and applying it to the Retail context. The 40-day project involved a team with advanced skills in Cloud, Gen-AI, APP Development and Digital Design, specializing in developing digital solutions for the Retail sector. To build Baggy-AI’s PoC, the Microsoft Azure Cloud platform was chosen.

Baggy-AI at Retail Forum 2024