Introducing the World’s First Intelligent Product Cloud

Spring has always been a season of renewal and innovation, and this year, it’s brought something truly special for the Product Experience (PX) Community.

In case you missed it, the team at Akeneo announced some pretty exciting updates during the Spring Release keynote at Unlock Boston. From a sleek new Salesforce App to new sales channels available in Akeneo Activation, there are a slew of developments that we’re buzzing for, but there is one area that we’re particularly excited about: AI.

In a world where technology continually shapes and reshapes how we interact and shop, staying ahead of the curve is not just an advantage – it’s a necessity. That’s why we’re so excited to unveil some of the newest native AI capabilities within the Akeneo Product Cloud.

But first . . .

What’s a Product Cloud?

A product cloud is a composable SaaS-based technology suite designed to orchestrate, activate, and optimize the entire product story across all owned and unowned channels. The modular nature of a product cloud means that your team is able to personalize your tech stack to fit the exact needs of your organization. 

Plus, a product cloud should be able to support the entire product record, including both hot (dynamic) and cold (static) data. From pricing to digital assets to size dimensions to user-generated content, the product cloud acts as a single system of record to house all of this data that is scattered across different technologies.

The last defining feature of a product cloud is its usability; any number of users, managers, administrators, developers, or integrators should be able to hop in at any point and understand what product information lives where, how to access it, and how to syndicate it to the right channels in the right way. Technologies that require extensive IT knowledge, or rely on individual employees who know how to operate the system, simply aren’t scalable.

The Intelligent Product Cloud

After acquiring the AI platform Unifai in September 2023 and announcing over 20 AI apps in the Akeneo App Store, the team here at Akeneo has invested heavily in AI, even assembling a team of experts with deep knowledge in the field of AI who will serve as the foundation for all future AI innovations in the Akeneo Product Cloud.

But before we get too ahead of ourselves, let’s take a look at some of the new and improved AI capabilities within the Akeneo Product Cloud that were announced in our 2024 Spring Release.

1. Native GenAI in Akeneo PIM

In the fast-paced nature of today’s market, the ability to quickly generate and adapt content is crucial. Harnessing the power of generative AI, Akeneo PIM now enables your business to create bulk product content in minutes that not only resonates with your target audience but also aligns with your brand voice and product specifics.

Expanding into global markets requires content that speaks the language of your customers – literally. New functionality in Akeneo PIM also offers the ability to translate product data and romance copy into more than 50 languages, enabling your organization to easily adapt content to meet regional market expectations and personalize the customer experience.

Not only do these updates amplify productivity, accuracy, and scalability in the content creation, translation, and localization process, but they also help to streamline the entire product content creation and translation process as you’ll be working within the product edit form that you’ve already been working in in Akeneo PIM – no additional tools or AI expertise needed.

2. Native GenAI in Akeneo Supplier Data Manager

Akeneo Supplier Data Manager is also now equipped with native AI capabilities to onboard suppliers faster and more efficiently.  By automating critical processes such mapping and normalizing supplier data to PIM attributes, categorizing products according to PIM families and categories, and enriching product records with unstructured product data, and by simplifying the complexities involved in handling vast amounts of supplier information, Akeneo SDM is creating a more streamlined and efficient supplier onboarding process for all.

How you manage your supplier relations has a direct impact on the customer: faster onboarding means businesses can bring their products to market more quickly, and streamlined operations can result in less data errors and inconsistencies.

Overall, Akeneo’s AI-powered Supplier Data Manager enables your organization to:

• Automate some of your more manual grunt work, ensuring data consistency for product experiences across all channels
• Improve time-to-market
• Increase the accuracy and completeness of your entire product data record
• Foster a more efficient, mutually beneficial collaboration between your organization and your suppliers

3. AI for PX in the Akeneo App Marketplace

The Akeneo App Marketplace is the third exciting area of AI investment announced in Spring Release 2024. With over 200 apps and integrations, including 37 new additions in 2023 alone, the Akeneo App Marketplace offers an unparalleled array of technologies that leverage the power of AI to transform the quality, accuracy, and relevance of product information across all channels and markets.

Though not an exhaustive list, a few noteworthy additions to the Marketplace are:

• Grand Shooting – Catalog Sync App: This is an AI-powered solution which facilitates image quality control by retouching non-compliant images in real time. This real-time correction ensures that product images are always of the highest quality, enhancing the visual appeal of online catalogs and improving the overall product experience for customers.
• Copysmith AI App: Recognizing the importance of compelling and accurate product descriptions in eCommerce, the Copysmith AI App empowers users to generate engaging product narratives effortlessly, simplifying the creation of product descriptions and conveying key product features effectively.
• Smartling App: This application supports seamless automation and management of product descriptions and other content across different languages, facilitating a truly global reach for businesses. By automating the translation and localization process, this app ensures that product information is accurate, culturally relevant, and resonant with international audiences, thereby enhancing the global product experience.

Our ever-growing selection of AI apps in the Akeneo App Store supports the flexibility of a composable commerce tech stack, while enabling customers to take advantage of AI innovation from trusted business partners.

The Future of the Intelligent Product Cloud

AI is changing the name of the game, and those organizations who embrace the future of technology will be the ones to stand the test of time as AI only promises to become more and more prominent in our everyday lives.

These native GenAI enhancements to the Akeneo Product Cloud are designed to empower businesses to streamline workflows and elevate the overall quality of product experiences across the globe.

But this is just the beginning! With our team of AI experts on board, we are only getting started with our AI journey, so make sure you stay tuned to see what’s coming next.

For those keen to explore these advancements further, we invite you to discover the full details of our 2024 Spring Release. Learn more here!