Let’s look at some these principles in action. Fujitsu’s portfolio company GK Software is a great example of how we can bring together a broad ecosystem of technologies to solve real business challenges, in this case, for the retail sector. At its core, GK Software delivers SaaS-based retail technologies including checkout, consumer engagement and store operations to global retailers. It has been the market leader for over 35 years.
GK has developed from its roots in POS solutions to build a comprehensive suite of advanced software capabilities for the retail sector that bring together AI, business workflows, sensors, and IoT to drive transformative impact in Retail Operations.
One example is how GK has given its retail customers the choice to add certain AI technologies to their Self-Checkout solutions to reduce costs and improve convenience at a feasible price point. A great challenge for leading retailers is the prevention of unintentional or intentional fraud at the self-checkout by customers failing to scan all their items. To effectively tackle this challenge, retailers have faced enormous costs of exchanging their entire hardware landscape or hiring additional staff to oversee customers. GK’s “Vision” technology, effectively allows retailers now to integrate AI in their Self-Checkout retroactively and leverage computer vision technology to assist customers and staff in ensuring all items have been scanned correctly. This retrofit approach has opened the door for retailers to apply new technology at an effective price point and at scale, creating a product that is highly applicable in today’s scenarios and adds real value. The technology also creates a more convenient experience for customers by guessing their age (thereby avoiding a wait for an assistant to check) and recognizing items that need a manual lookup like fruit and vegetables.
Thinking back to the heat map above, here UI, CV, OCR and ML are integrated together to deliver the impact theme – in this case fraud and loss prevention. Importantly, we also thought through and addressed the significant operational challenges of rolling this out into a live environment.
A second example is GK’s Price Optimization solution. A major cost to the retailers comes from fluctuations in supply and demand – meeting demand from customers with the right levels of stock. Overstocking leads to holding costs, which might be 30% of the inventory’s annual value. Conversely, not holding enough stock makes the retailer vulnerable to sudden changes in demand. Consider, for example how an unexpected spell of good weather changes what consumers might buy from a supermarket. Running out of stock is a cost not only from lost revenue but from customer goodwill.
GK Software delivers solutions to dynamically optimize pricing – enabling a smoothing out of supply and demand and reducing the cost exposure of the retailer to surpluses or shortfalls in stock. The technology determines the optimum price for each item and changes it in real time on the shelves. Again, the solution combines component technologies, in this case it’s the stock management system, Machine Learning, and intelligent labels in the physical store that are integrated together to deliver the impact theme – optimized pricing.
The solutions are typically handling daily price calculations for over half a million items of stock and a 3-5% increase in revenue is typical.
These capabilities span across from the customer, the physical front-end, the in-store experience through to back-end systems, logistics and into the retailer’s supply chain. Fujitsu complements GK’s software expertise with technology, spanning AI enablement, cyber security, managed services, platform configuration, and ongoing innovation.
While AI may be the disruptive and game-changing technology in each case, it is just one component of a complex system. These examples show that the power of AI comes not through pilots of a hundred different use cases, but rather through integrating it into core processes that deliver big ticket gains for the business.
Looking ahead, we’re continuing to expand this foundation, delivering AI-powered workflow management, content optimization, and LLM-based training services. As a combined force, we’re building the end-to-end, intelligent digital platform for modern retail.
