How AI Agents Will Transform Ecommerce Order and Inventory Management Systems

Knowledge workers have their work cut out for them. The advent of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Agents represents a revolutionary leap in technological innovation and will transform how business operates across every sector. They are highly specialized applications built from a foundation of Large Language Models (LLM) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities, (think ChatGPT or Llama by Meta AI), but instead of just returning an answer from a huge database of content built from webpages in the public domain, they can understand private, proprietary data and then “act” on the initial result to complete a workflow or achieve an outcome.

“Act” is the key word. AI Agents take autonomous action on the user’s behalf to complete the task or achieve the desired outcome. So, knowledge workers will either need to learn to harness the power of AI to 10X their output (or the output from the tools at their disposal), or AI agents will take over those jobs at a fraction of the cost. Being able to understand how these new tools work and marshal them in the right direction will be critical to gaining an early edge in the retail market and then staying there.

Ecommerce Order and Inventory Management Systems are already starting to incorporate AI agents to evolve these SaaS platforms into back-office powerhouses (unlike anything that has come before) that will do a better job, do it faster, and achieve lower overall costs for the business. Examples include:

1. Best-in-Class Demand Forecasting
   Predict demand with remarkable accuracy. Merchants have historically used unsophisticated data analysis tools and methods that led to unreliable forecasts, but typically some kind of guesses were better than no guesses at all. But modern Inventory Management Systems (IMS’s) using AI agents can analyze many millions of historical sales data points, current inventory on hand, and real-time market trends and supply chain issues to make intelligent forecasts to avoid stockouts and tying up capital in overstock.
   


2. Automatic [Humanless] Procurement
   AI agents can automatically create Purchase Orders with vendors at precisely the right time based on current inventory on hand using demand forecasts that include vendor lead times and transit times that consider real-time ocean freight availability, holidays such as Chinese New Year, weather conditions, port strikes, etc.
   


3. Optimize Fulfillment Costs
   Modern AI-enabled shipping software takes the thinking out of shipping label creation by removing the human and creating the optimal shipping label in the smallest packaging (box, mailer) that will deliver the order safely and on time, every time. It tells the warehouse staff which packaging the label was created for and tracks the packaging quantity on hand with reorder points. AI-assisted Order Management Systems (OMS’s) can monitor weather conditions and assign orders to fulfillment centers that are more likely to deliver them on time. See how much you can save.
   


4. Eliminate Returns and Reclaim Revenue Faster
   It’s critical to manage returns effectively (especially for the highest return rate categories such as women’s apparel), and frequent shoppers/returners typically represent the customers with highest lifetime value. So it’s important to take care of them. If an exchange or store credit is declined by the customer and a return is the only option, groundbreaking new returns technologies such as the Cahoot Peer-to-Peer Returns Solution are already eliminating returns altogether by enabling the return to be graded, approved, and quickly shipped by the customer. But NOT back to the warehouse… the shipping label delivers the item directly to the next customer, saving merchants significant money and time. AI detects the product’s condition by picture and automatically lists acceptable items at an open box discounted price, all without human oversight.
   


5. Dynamic Pricing Strategies
   AI agents can monitor competitor pricing and compare it with unique and repeat page views, sell-through rates, and unit quantity available to make real-time pricing adjustments that convert the sale while maximizing profitability and remaining competitive. Add a real-time discount incentive if an item is added to the cart. And, these personalized interactions not only drive sales, but also foster loyalty.

Summary

Agentic AI is here, and the transformative power of the technology extends way beyond mere automation rules and logic trees. Some people are worried about how this new technology will replace jobs, and they should be. But it can’t take over all higher-level jobs. At least in the near-term, people are still needed to build and direct the agents to work on the problems that will improve business outcomes.

It’s an extremely exciting time in history, and particularly for the ecommerce industry. As ecommerce businesses embrace these advancements and the powerful tools that emerge, (such as the Order and Inventory Management agents described above that can dig deep into the data and deliver precise forecasting, intelligent automation, and lower operational costs), they will not only streamline their operations but also build the agility needed to thrive in an increasingly complex and competitive industry.

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