Artificial Intelligence

Focus on the business problem, not the technology


If you are in the process of developing strategies and acquiring technologies to become a data-driven business __ you are probably familiar with the frustration of researching and vetting machine learning (ML) and/or artificial intelligence (AI) solutions __ whether you are looking for platforms, consultants, solutions or services. The level of ‘noise’ and ‘hype’ in the ML/AI marketplace is staggering especially to those just starting their transformation into the world of digital business.  There are more than 10,000 ML/AI startup companies to sift through for platforms and services__ each offering some piece of the total ‘digital transformation pie’. In addition, there are many enterprise level data and ML/AI platforms and huge consulting services offered by the larger companies that are meant for Fortune 500 customers and come with mega price tags and timelines.

For those of you looking for sophisticated AI-enabled solutions that are affordable, the reality is that understanding solutions from multiple vendors will be time-consuming and a bit overwhelming. Once you select a vendor for a particular solution, it will often require a multi-year effort to drive significant value because of the level of complexity in integration, deployment, and adoption by your workforce. Gartner observes that Price Optimization and Management platforms, for example, can take up to 15 months to implement for a $1 billion business or division. That is a long time to wait for a return on investment in uncertain times.

Gartner confirms what we know to be true, a majority of AI projects fail to meet expectations and many AI solutions are purchased and integrated but never fully adopted by the intended users. We think there are a multitude of reasons for this, perhaps the most significant being that ML/AI platform and solution developers, to a large degree, are focused on solving technical problems or deficits instead of focusing on solutions that directly improve specific business operations and profits.

A2Go believes the path for all businesses to benefit from AI capabilities begins with understanding where AI can bring value the business need(s) and not with investing in the technology pieces needed to build and operate AI solutions. Focusing on technology first runs the risk of purchasing infrastructure components and platforms that only deliver some pieces of the pie. We have observed that becoming data-driven requires technical capabilities better handled by third party providers with the expertise to vet, connect, operate and trouble shoot the technologies and data science __this is not for the faint of heart. It is far more economical to acquire AI capabilities ‘as a service’ and save yourselves from the high price tags of prepackage platforms and the long time to value that most experience.

A2Go is an AI as a Service company that provides “off the shelf”, configurable, and custom solutions. We work with our customers to deploy and support all of our solutions. We are technology experts and are discovering, vetting and filtering through the latest ML/AI ‘pieces of the pie’ on a regular basis so our customers don’t have to. We already have the guys who talk over lunch about Kubernetes, APIs, Python, GitHub and more. We design our solutions to deliver AI-driven insights, predictions and prescribed actions to your workforce when and where they need them.

Analytics2Go develops industry-specific solutions that target business use cases within that industry that can benefit significantly from the application of AI models and technology. Our solutions are meant to be “connected” to your existing infrastructure and work within your current workflows. By offering industry-vertical-specific AI, we reduce risk and reduce the time-to-value for our customers to weeks or months instead of a year or more.

A2Go employs both data scientists and business professionals with deep expertise in our customer’s industries and practices. These individuals work together in both the sales and the fulfillment process to ensure that A2Go only works onhigh-value, AI-enablement opportunities. To benefit from an Analytics2Go AI solution, we often take 1-2 weeks to get acquainted with the customer’s best-informed knowledge workers. We have learned that these individuals are essential to adopting AI effectively. They help us to understand the reality of their day-to-day challenges.  Very often, they already have good ideas about which decisions need to be improved and the mode of delivery that would make adoption of AI-driven solutions most successful in their business.

Our Price-Right AI for Food Distributors is a good example of our philosophy in practice. It is easily configured for the workflows and datasets of food distributors supplying restaurants, bars, hospitals, and other institutions with complex product ranges and features. We send AI-driven optimized price lists from our cloud-based platform directly to the sales reps’ ordering devices and the distributors online ordering portal.  Price-Right AI uses models that precisely ‘cluster’ all the customers of a given distributor based on similar purchasing behaviors, location, and calendar data. The solution delivers optimized prices for each SKU for each customer while taking into account the required margins built into the distributors business model.  Customer clusters and prices are dynamic since purchasing behaviors are dynamic, especially in a disrupted business environment such as what we’ve experienced in 2020. The benefit of AI-driven solutions is that they continue to learn your business and customer behaviors as sales data comes in. This guarantees continued improvements over time.

In addition to our industry specific AI solutions that can be embedded in existing workflows, Analytics2Go recognizes that there is often the desire and high ROI opportunities within companies to develop more customized AI solutions. We expect that companies should achieve a positive return within two calendar quarters after going live. Currently, we are operating in the areas of wholesale distribution, quick service and fast casual restaurants and online retail. We have expertise in supply chain management, price optimization and product recommendation.





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