Byte-Sized AI: SAP Plans to Release Retention-Focused Retail Systems; Alo Yoga Links with Invent.ai
Meghan Hall
5 min read
Byte-Sized AI is a bi-weekly column that covers all things artificial intelligence—from startup funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players.
SAP rolls out retail-focused AI functions ahead of NRF 2025
Technology giant SAP announced Thursday that it had made S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, retail, fashion and vertical business solution generally available. S/4HANA is SAP’s proprietary enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, which uses data and decisioning to help retailers keep their business up and running on a day-to-day basis; it’s used by some of retail’s largest players.
The release includes several AI-powered tools that the company believes will help retailers meet customer expectations, in turn helping with retention metrics. SAP Emarsys data shows that eight in 10 consumers said they don’t feel valued enough by the brands they put their loyalty behind.
By integrating S/4HANA with Emarsys and others SAP tools, the company announced that, in the back half of 2025 it will empower retailers with a new, loyalty-focused system. It will assign each customer a loyalty wallet on the cloud, allowing them to receive personalized offers and discounts; will allow retailers with multiple brands (think Gap and its sister brands, Old Navy, Athleta and Banana Republic) to manage multi-brand loyalty programs and more.
And though those loyalty capabilities won’t be available until the second half of the year, retailers and brands also have a new capability to look forward to in the first half of the year: an AI shopping assistant. The company said it will change e-commerce by leveraging “through natural language conversations that help customers quickly find exactly what they need,” though it did not specify what the exact capabilities of the product will include.
Leslie Hand, group vice president for IDC Retail Insights, said the S/4HANA availability update, paired with the incoming AI-powered systems marks an exciting leap for SAP.
“SAP’s announcement of an all-in-one platform tailored for retail represents a meaningful differentiator in the market,” Hand said in a statement. “Retailers often struggle with fragmented solutions that excel in some areas but cannot deliver the end-to-end integration necessary for seamless retail operations.”
Alo Yoga taps Invent.ai
Invent.ai, formerly known as Invent Analytics, announced Wednesday that it has been partnering with activewear brand Alo Yoga on inventory planning and replenishment.
According to the company, Alo tapped Invent because of its AI-powered decisioning and demand forecasting, in hopes that it would improve Alo’s allocation and buying processes. In the first three months of the partnership, Invent brought Alo increased revenue, inventory accuracy and customer sentiment, though the two companies did not disclose the numerical gains associated with those key performance indicators.
Some of that success has come as Alo has gained the ability to launch new products and colors on faster cycles, and better understood how best to allocate that new inventory as its store footprint grows. Eva Yerkes, executive vice president of planning and allocation at Alo, said Invent has already proven out its value.
“Our collaboration with invent.ai has reshaped our inventory planning, enabling us to keep up with fast-changing customer demands,” Yerkes said in a statement. “Invent.ai is one of the few companies delivering true AI solutions. Its technology surpassed our expectations, achieving superior results.”
Gurhan Kok, CEO of Invent.ai, said the partnership is a prime example of how the company’s technology can make a difference for a client.
“With our AI-decisioning technology solution, we empower the planners to achieve real-time responsiveness to market trends, ensuring the right products are in the right stores at the right time,” Kok said in a statement.
Invent has also partnered with retailers and brands like Gap, Mavi, Men’s Wearhouse and Academy Sports & Outdoors.
Bamboo Rose scoops up supply chain AI startup
Product lifecycle management (PLM) provider Bamboo Rose announced Tuesday that it had acquired Verteego, a startup focused on AI-powered decisioning for the retail supply chain. The two companies did not disclose the financial details of the deal.
Verteego uses companies’ data to make recommendations and decisions around demand planning, purchasing and replenishment. Its proprietary Decision Intelligence tool gathers those capabilities into one system, using retailers’ data to run simulate multiple scenarios and recommend what the system perceives to be the best outcome.
Rupert Schiessl, Verteego founder and CEO, said that system was the selling point that brought the acquisition deal together.
“Both teams were immediately and continuously aligned to a future that brought Verteego’s AI-fueled Decision Intelligence capabilities to the Bamboo Rose platform,” he said in a statement. “Our AI will act as an intelligent orchestrator, providing detailed assistance and guidance across the end-to-end Bamboo Rose Retail Management Platform.”
Matt Stevens, CEO at Bamboo Rose, said the move is meant to broaden the company’s ability to serve a wide variety of customer needs.
“The market is littered with firms who rushed to have any semblance of an AI story in place. This resulted in one-off, vertically-oriented approaches which have proven very difficult to leverage across multiple use cases and large data sets,” said Matt Stevens, CEO at Bamboo Rose. “Our hallmark is efficiency at scale. Bamboo Rose’s AI-powered Decision Intelligence leverages our customer’s data horizontally to unlock unprecedented gains in automation and effectiveness end-to-end, from planning, development, and buying all the way through global trade management.”
