UK supermarket chain Waitrose is introducing artificial intelligence (AI) from Arizona-based Blue Yonder to improve supply chain forecasting.

The move marks the first significant introduction of AI into Waitrose’s forecasting and is designed to improve the already high levels of availability across the retailer’s stores.

Rather than relying on historical sales data and human intuition, the AI forecasting capability – part of Blue Yonder Demand Planning (blueyonder.com/solutions/demand-planning) – focuses on customer behaviour and analyses why customers bought what they did rather than just what they bought.

The capability understands and learns from the trading environment to provide a better forecast based on customer behaviour. For example, it will learn how customers responded to various influences including weather variations, major sporting and cultural events, and promotions. 

The upgrade is part of a significant investment in technology across Waitrose’s supply chain and is designed to improve availability, which already stands at record levels.

It is also expected to improve customer satisfaction scores by increasing on-shelf availability and refocusing shop assistants from manual ordering to more strategic customer-oriented tasks. AI capabilities will be used to ingest and analyse massive volumes of data without overwhelming users. It can assess risks by weighing different forecasting outcomes, and determine stock volumes dynamically to reduce waste. And it can respond to demand fluctuations automatically, quickly and accurately.

“Whether we are planning for a major sporting final or the first cold snap of the winter, there can be multiple factors affecting what our customers buy,” said Alison Maffin, Waitrose supply chain director. “The Blue Yonder solution will learn from previous experience and help us predict this more accurately so we can be confident we have the stock our customers want. This will allow us to produce a much more accurate forecast for our suppliers and logistics partners but will also result in less wastage and better availability for our customers.”

Gael Ramaen, corporate vice president at Blue Yonder, added: “A better forecast is crucial for retailers, and we are thrilled and proud to support Waitrose with their goals of enhancing customer experience and meeting sustainability goals. This builds on the already successful deployment of Blue Yonder fulfilment and warehouse management used within their organisation.”

Waitrose has 331 shops in England, Scotland, Wales and the Channel Islands, including 59 convenience branches, 27 shops at Welcome Break locations, and Waitrose.com.

Blue Yonder (blueyonder.com) specialises in digital supply chain transformation. Retailers, manufacturers and logistics providers use its technology to optimise their supply chains from planning through fulfilment, delivery and returns.