With our eyes now set on launching and scaling our AI assistant in an open beta, the IBM team suggested ways to improve cost-efficiency and reduce latency of responses. Latency is a crucial metric for e-commerce interactions, so parts of our conversational agentic workflows now include extensive use of the IBM Granite models that decrease latency and optimize the user experience.
Aspects that will become increasingly important as we grow are governance, risk and compliance. It’s reassuring to know that all of these are covered by IBM watsonx, a portfolio of AI products.
We’re currently working with clients from different B2B and B2C industries to integrate our AI assistant Buddy with their platforms and e-commerce shops to give them new opportunities to interactively engage with their customers. Our vision is to provide a bundle of AI tools that make it easier for customers to discover what they want through an intelligent product search, get answers to any product or support questions they may have while browsing or shopping, and enjoy a smooth experience at the checkout.
The impact could be massive for our clients. For instance, our AI assistants will increase interaction with both B2B and B2C customers, leading to new cross-selling and up-selling opportunities. At the same time, our assistant will reduce dropout rates during the checkout process to maximize sales and revenue. Our goal is to deliver a comprehensive, knowledgeable and proactive AI assistant that shifts the dial for our clients. I am convinced that virtual shopping assistants will become a natural part of the digital shopping journey and will in the future make use of visible virtual personas to provide a highly personalized shopping experience.
We’re currently developing new modules within the Buddy platform: an AI assistant that gives e-commerce managers actionable recommendations and enables the creation of reports by prompting the assistant in the dashboard. With this tool, they can easily identify challenges and opportunities, as well as benchmark their shop against competitors. Furthermore, they can make use of the AI assistant to understand how to optimize their product selection, content and pricing to boost sales through data-driven insights.
As we work closely with IBM, we feel that the sky is the limit. For us, partnering with IBM is not mainly about technology: it is about a shared vision and an unwavering drive to succeed together. Building a startup business is extremely hard, but the IBM team has continuously supported and motivated us to keep going and rapidly move forward from idea to marketable product.
Key benefits for us of working with IBM watsonx:
- A portfolio of AI products designed with governance and data compliance in mind to meet the requirements of the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act
- A broad selection of cutting-edge, ready-to-use AI models available in the watsonx.ai model library