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Canadian Tire Corporation (CTC) has launched two innovative technology initiatives to help streamline business for the company and the consumer.<\/p>\n
Canadian Tire\u2019s new shopping assistant, CeeTee, is available on the Canadian Tire app under the \u201cTires\u201d category and helps customers easily select the right wheels for their vehicles.<\/p>\n
CTC has also partnered with Sanctuary AI to introduce the inaugural human-like robot, known as \u201cGeneral Purpose Robots\u201d, which are designed to alleviate tedious and monotonous tasks in retail stores and distribution centres so employees can focus on more valuable work.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe importance of emerging technology is really twofold. The first is that by using it and experimenting with it, we\u2019re not just teaching our employees on how to leverage some of these emerging trends but we\u2019re also establishing ourselves as a leader and able to get in front of some of the technology that\u2019s coming. So that\u2019s really important to us,\u201d said Cari Covent, Head of AI and Emerging Technology, Canadian Tire Corporation.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd the second thing that\u2019s really important is that from an emerging technology perspective we really want to understand how we can use it to generate growth within our company as well as drive efficiencies. So we see AI, generative AI, as an opportunity to automate a lot of work that doesn\u2019t need to be done by humans and it really allows them to focus on higher value work.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re one of the first in Canada to really come out with a generative AI powered, customer facing application. And we\u2019re also using gen AI across the organization in a number of different ways. But the other thing that\u2019s important is that the traditional AI for the work that\u2019s been happening for years in our organization as well as in the industry around machine learning and operation research and optimization that still remains really important. A key element we believe to our success has been the investment that we\u2019ve made in both our data platforms. We\u2019ve invested heavily in our data platforms and our processes and our first party data as well as in our digital platforms. And by doing that over the last three to four years it\u2019s really allowed us to move very quickly when generative AI became something that we could use in the early part of 2023.\u201d<\/p>\n Covent said CeeTee is an easy-to-use, AI-powered shopping assistant designed to assist customers throughout their tire shopping journey, simplifying the process of finding the right tires for their vehicles, all at a click of a button.\u00a0<\/p>\n The CeeTee shopping assistant supports tire selection, offers real-time local inventory updates, facilitates purchases and interacts with customers in a very natural and human way.\u00a0<\/p>\n CeeTee\u202fis available on iOS for customers throughout Canada (excluding Quebec).<\/p>\n \u201cIt allows customers to go in and ask questions in natural language. So very different from searching on a website and being constrained by specific rules and what\u2019s available. It has the capability of being able to use a combination of large language models as well as our product data as well as our store data to be able to answer really any question that a customer might have related to tires and how to use those tires,\u201d added Covent.<\/p>\n Today, it is strictly for tires but Canadian Tire will look at rolling the concept out for other products.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re very pleased at the direction it\u2019s going so our goal now is to scale that, look at bringing in additional categories and\/or doubling down on the entire automotive shopping experience. We\u2019re just trying to determine what would be the best in terms of providing an optimal customer experience as well as return on investment. So we\u2019re just working through that decision right now.\u201d<\/p>\n Covent said the humanoid robot concept is with Canadian company Sanctuary Cognitive Systems Corporation that is working towards developing the first general purpose robot.<\/p>\n \u201cHow that\u2019s different than other robotics we might use in supply chain is that the other robotics are usually focused on single tasks. This robot can do multiple tasks similar to what a human can do,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd what makes this interesting is that eventually it will be autonomous. So no different than a human that goes into work every day at a distribution centre and has multiple different things to do in its day this robot will also have multiple different things to do and it will be able to operate completely autonomously.\u201d<\/p>\n Covent said there are a number of different tasks that will be developed.<\/p>\n \u201cOur work with Sanctuary in this general purpose robot is not to replace the employees that we have. It\u2019s really to help us solve for a problem that we have which is to attract employees into that type of work and also to reduce the manual labour that happens in the distribution centres,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n For example, boxes will come down a conveyor belt today, down 16 conveyor belts, and a human will take the box, put it on a pallet, stock it up to a certain height then wrap the pallet completely and then it gets shipped to stores. It\u2019s heavy and monotonous work.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this robot will be able to do is take that, move it onto the pallet . . . Because of the ability of the robot to be able to see where the next spot goes on a pallet, it\u2019s not just stocking, stocking, stocking. It\u2019s actually essentially creating that puzzle on the pallet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s one example. Another example we\u2019re working on is picking and packing. Products are made available to pack into a tote, the robot depending on all different sizes, can pick up those products, put it into a tote, package the tote and then the tote will then get sent to a store for receiving.\u201d<\/p>\n Recently, at a Mark\u2019s retail store in Langley, BC, a robot was used for picking and packing as a pilot project. The robot has the ability to scan a label and then place it into a soft package for ecommerce shipment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cRight now it\u2019s not in the stores or in the DC\u2019s. We bring it out to test it. It\u2019s being trained in a lab in Vancouver and what they essentially do is take these types of used cases, they use simulation technology to simulate what it would be in our stores and in our distribution centres and they train the robot on that,\u201d said Covent. \u201cOnce it\u2019s mastered the elements of the task, then we take it into our store or into our distribution centre and we test in a real-life situation alongside humans.\u201d<\/p>\n She said once Sanctuary is able to scale the robots then CTC will have the availability to put them into its distribution centres.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be in the distribution centres well before it will be in a store,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n \u201cMany organizations are facing labor challenges. Our population is aging, birth rates are declining, and workers have more choice for what they do and where they work than ever in history,\u201d said Geordie Rose, co-founder and CEO, Sanctuary AI, in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough our partnership with Canadian Tire Corporation, we worked on analyzing how their work was done and what work people like and don\u2019t like doing, in both their retail and distribution center environments. In January we deployed a general-purpose robot to a retail store to attempt to perform many necessary but rudimentary tasks that people note finding unsatisfying or unfavorable. The results were spectacular. We are ecstatic to have accomplished this with Canadian Tire Corporation, one of Canada\u2019s leading companies.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/retailinsider.b-cdn.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/09-Sanctuary-AI-Phoenix-Gen-7-Wave-Not-a-Render-1200x798.jpeg\")
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