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.
Logistics TMS launches AI assistant
Delivery and transportation SaaS company NuVizz announced this week it had launched an AI assistant, which it calls Vizzard.
The assistant aids logistics professionals with a variety of tasks—including how operators and dispatchers can select the best route optimization algorithm based on the task or delivery at hand. In turn, that can help with vehicle utilization, decrease the number of unnecessary or redundant miles driven and optimize routes for drivers.
As is perhaps one of the most enticing promises of AI assistants, Vizzard has the ability to ingest and map customer data from myriad sources, which makes data integration smoother and faster.
The tool also aids with address correction and validation—which can reduce the number of failed deliveries and can help streamline internal processes.
Vizzard’s launch coincides with other updates NuVizz made to its last-mile transportation management system (TMS), which includes the ability to receive real-time adjustments to routes based on data and real-world events, like poor weather, road closures, high volumes of traffic or otherwise.
Guru Rao, CEO of NuVizz, said the upgrade combines data intelligence with AI, which can help make last-mile logistics more efficient throughout the industry.
“AI will be a big part of the future of logistics, and by leveraging a decade of logistics intelligence at nuVizz, Vizzard harnesses that data to drive smarter, faster, and more effective decision-making,” Rao told Sourcing Journal. “Automating routing, address validation and real-time decision-making helps businesses cut costs, improve delivery accuracy and help move towards a more autonomous delivery ecosystem. Vizzard isn’t just an AI assistant—it’s a game-changer for the industry, setting a new standard for last-mile efficiency and innovation.”
Google shouts out AI in earnings
Google is one of the many companies starting to see engagement rise because of AI-powered shopping tools.
On its earnings call this week, executives highlighted AI’s impact to date. Last year, the technology giant launched and refined a variety of AI-based features that are meant to help make shopping online easier for the average consumer.
Among those tools were upgrades to the Google Lens feature, which now allows consumers to have better visibility into brands’ in-store inventory. It also added a new feature to its Shopping Graph feature, which sees users swiping through various items in a Tinder-like style to eventually receive product recommendations.
Google has also upped its game for advertisers, brands and retailers, using AI algorithms to help companies reach consumers in a more personalized fashion.
Philip Schneider, Google’s senior vice president and chief business officer, said the company’s consumer-facing experiences have paid off to date.
“Last quarter, we introduced a reinvented Google Shopping experience, rebuilt from the ground up with AI,” Schneider said on the earnings call. “This December saw roughly 13 percent more daily active users in Google Shopping in the U.S., compared to the same period in 2023.”
On the call, Google didn’t directly comment on how much revenue that kind of jump could equate to, nor what it expects to see in 2025.
Destination XL links with Bluecore on personalization
Destination XL (DXL), which sells big and tall men’s clothing and footwear, announced Thursday it had expanded its partnership with retail technology provider Bluecore.
Using Bluecore’s AI-powered technology, DXL has the ability to identify its customers, regardless of channel, and personalize the experience they have with DXL’s various channels. The partnership aims to amalgamate marketing touchpoints for DXL, which had previously used various technologies to do the same job.
By consolidating its data and its systems, DXL will more efficiently be able to predict consumer behavior and understand what type of marketing best resonates with its shoppers, depending on where they are in the journey with the retailer.
Bluecore announced last year that it had acquired Alby, a generative AI-powered shopping assistant system, which allows consumers to query their favorite brands and retailers in real time. According to the announcement, DXL will employ that tool, which can both satisfy customer needs and give the company a glimpse into exactly what its customers need and search for answers to.
Jim Reath, chief marketing officer at DXL, said the partnership can help further connect the e-commerce experience with the in-store experience for its consumers.
“As an omnichannel retailer, it’s critical that we understand what every customer needs to support their shopping and buying journeys and it’s now through Bluecore that we have a single, holistic view into our customers’ individual preferences and shopping behaviors,” Reath said in a statement. “Our digital marketing through Bluecore is bringing our offline and online channels together to create a seamless personalized shopper experience in partnership with our Digital and Technology teams.”
AI-produced ad maker hits the market
Kennan Davison, founder and CEO of Icon, brought his emerging startup to the fore on LinkedIn this week, flaunting the features of the platform, which helps brands turn existing video content into ads without the cost and time required to create typical ads.
The company is backed by Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund and executives at a variety of AI labs, including OpenAI.
According to Icon’s site, the tool is like “ChatGPT + CapCut, but for making winning ads with AI in minutes.” It uses brands’ existing video libraries to pinpoint “reusable clips used as lego blocks for making ads,” Davison said.
From there, its script-generation tool, AdGPT, creates scripts that are catered to specific audience segments or themes. Then, Icon can match the pre-existing clips to that script, finishing the draft of the ad. The final step requires a human to round out the video with any necessary edits on a “CapCut-like video editor.”
Already, Icon boasts clients in fashion, accessories and beauty like True Classic, Jones Road and Kitsch.
Davison’s value proposition is that the tool can create mass amounts of ads with a small budget and little oversight, enabling video content to be used on various channels.
“Making lots of ads is extremely painful. Icon helps you automate the tedious parts of scriptwriting, scene matching, video editing, audience research, UGC creation and more,” he said.