Albert Heijn uses Azure OpenAI for demand forecasting and recipe/leftover scanning, targeting over 10% food waste reduction
Albert Heijn· NetherlandsAzure OpenAI · Azure Kubernetes Service · AI VisionAlbert Heijn, the Netherlands' leading supermarket chain, uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI, AI Vision and Azure Kubernetes Services for demand forecasting and generative AI customer features. It carries out daily predictions for more than 15 million store-item combinations more than 5 weeks in advance, making almost 1 billion predictions per day, and hopes to reduce its total food waste by more than 10% thanks to it. Its Dynamic Markdown initiative, which allows a product's discount to increase through the day via an Electronic Shelf Label, now saves 250,000 kilos of wasted food per year. Through its Gen AI Labs with Microsoft, Albert Heijn created a Recipe Scanner that adds a photographed recipe's ingredients to the shopping cart, and a Leftover Scanner is coming soon.
Overview
Albert Heijn, the Netherlands' leading supermarket chain, uses Microsoft Azure OpenAI, AI Vision and Azure Kubernetes Services for demand forecasting and generative AI customer features. It carries out daily predictions for more than 15 million store-item combinations more than 5 weeks in advance, making almost 1 billion predictions per day, and hopes to reduce its total food waste by more than 10% thanks to it. Its Dynamic Markdown initiative, which allows a product's discount to increase through the day via an Electronic Shelf Label, now saves 250,000 kilos of wasted food per year. Through its Gen AI Labs with Microsoft, Albert Heijn created a Recipe Scanner that adds a photographed recipe's ingredients to the shopping cart, and a Leftover Scanner is coming soon.
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Inspect the highlighted sourceThe challenge
Albert Heijn wants to help its customers eat better while minimizing its environmental footprint, and its ambition is to reduce its 2016 levels of food waste by 50% by 2030, which is not always easy with more sales in each store.
The solution
Using Microsoft Azure OpenAI, AI Vision and Azure Kubernetes Services, Albert Heijn applies AI to demand forecasting, running daily predictions for more than 15 million store-item combinations more than 5 weeks in advance. Its Dynamic Markdown initiative allows an increase to a product's discount throughout the day via an Electronic Shelf Label, and through its Gen AI Labs with Microsoft it created a Recipe Scanner that lets customers photograph a recipe and have its ingredients added to their shopping cart, with a Leftover Scanner that suggests recipes from a photo of leftovers described as coming soon.
Reported business value
The Dynamic Markdown initiative now saves 250,000 kilos of wasted food per year, and Albert Heijn hopes its AI-driven demand forecasting will reduce total food waste by more than 10%. The Recipe Scanner lets customers add a recipe's ingredients to their shopping cart in a matter of seconds.
Sources
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