Meet ABBY: The AI Shopping Assistant Revolutionizing Grocery Shopping at Albert Heijn

18

October

2024

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Grocery shopping can feel like a chore sometimes – adding items to your basket individually is tiresome, and you always end up forgetting something anyway. This is where ABBY comes in! ABBY, Albert Heijn’s AI-powered smart shopping assistant, makes your shopping experience faster, more personalized, eco-friendly, and, overall, smarter!”

Why ABBY for Albert Heijn?

Albert Heijn is the leader in the Dutch supermarket industry and has a strong online presence. The company has been collecting customer data since 1998, when it first introduced the “Bonus card”. ABBY builds on this strong foundation, by using the data available to make personalized recommendations, helping to drive revenue and increase sustainability.  

How Does ABBY Work?

ABBY is built on a large language model (LLM) that analyzes customer data such as previous shopping behavior, dietary preferences, and even the size of the household. Imagine the following scenario: You need to do the weekly shopping for your family of 4, and your two pets. Also, your in-laws are visiting this weekend and you will be hosting. You hop onto Albert Heijns website or app and start chatting with ABBY. You tell her about your weekend plans and the dreaded visits of the in-laws (they always want something with meat, but you are a vegetarian!) ABBY creates a shopping list for you – healthy vegetarian weekday meals, organic pet supplies, and all ingredients needed to prepare a pizza party for the in-laws (they can put meat on their pizzas and you can skip it – win-win!). Luckily, ABBY also adds milk and rice to your cart – you are running low on them and you didn’t think to put into your cart.

ABBY makes your shopping experience more efficient, convenient, and personalized. She helps you reduce waste by remembering previous purchases and guides customers towards more sustainable choices.

Mock-up of a chat with ABBY

Challenges and Considerations

AI is still new to many people and to ensure a smooth roll out and adoption of ABBY a few challenges were considered. Albert Heijn will have to address issues of data privacy and convincing (elder) customers to use AI. Additionally, the company must make sure that the system fits into its already existing data ecosystem.

What’s Next?

AI is here to stay. Multiple companies are already experimenting with the implementation of AI and Albert Heijn is no different, using their Gen AI labs to test things out. We believe, that Albert Heijn can benefit from the first mover advantage, if they roll out ABBY soon. Additionally, the company will see a significant increase in customer retention and loyalty, as well as a boost to revenue. By combining personalization, sustainability, and convenience, ABBY is going to make grocery shopping smarter and more fun for customers.

Participants: 

Francesca Pia Galtieri 602866 

Airi Lemke 723948  

Hanne Nissen 714934 

Emma Schlag 716824 

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Law & Order & AI – How Californias Bill SB1047 will impact AI development in the USA

27

September

2024

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The USA are often praised for their openness to innovation, while the EU is seen as lagging behind. But there is one aspect where the USA are now following the EU: AI regulation. In this blogpost I will discuss the Californian Bill “SB 1047: Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act” which currently awaits ratification by the Governor of California. (California Legislative Information, 2024)

While not yet enacted, the EU has created one of the most far reaching efforts in the world to regulate AI with the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). As we had discussed in class the AI Act focusses on different aspects such as a risk-based framework, accountability and transparency, governance, and human rights. (European Parliament, 2023)

How does the SB 1047 compare? First off, it is important to note that the Bill would only be turned into law in California. Nonetheless, this more or less means a nationwide application since most affected companies are based in Silicon Valley, California.

SB 1047 focusses on a few different aspects, I have highlighted the ones I think are most far reaching:

  1. Developers must implement controls to prevent the model from causing “critical harm”
  2. Developers must provide a written and separate safety and security protocol
  3. Developers must include a “kill switch” through which a full shutdown can be enacted
  4. Developers will have to have their models be tested, assessed, and regularly audited. (Gibson Dunn, 2024)

Like the AI Act, SB 1047 would focus on high-risk, high-impact AI models, while focusing on safety and security of the people impacted by AI.

But why would you care? Will this even affect everyday people? Isn’t this just stifling innovation and risking loss of competitive advantage?
Before you jump to the comments let me first highlight one of the bills supporters – Elon Musk. On his platform X, Musk has posted about his support for the bill, stating that AI should be regulated like “any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public” (Tan, 2024) I don’t often align with Musk’s views, but I really agree with this stance on regulation!

Screenshot of Musks Tweet suppporting the SB1047 bill.

Why should we let AI and its development stay completely unchecked but still use it for vital parts of our daily life? Why should we not want to know how AI works beneath the engine? Time and time again, history has taught us that leaving big systems unchecked because they were deemed “too complex” or because we trusted the people who run them to do so in the best interest of the public, does not always lead to the desired outcomes.
From job applications, health, safety, to privacy we already use AI in most aspects of life. I, for one, do not want these parts of my life to be guided by the ethics (or maybe lack thereof) of individuals. I want there to be clear legislature and a framework in place to guide the future development of AI. Because even though most people might not clearly see how their life is (beneficially) impacted by AI currently, I don’t want anyone to ever experience how AI might detrimentally impact their life.

Resources used:

California Legislative Information. (2024, September 3). Senate Bill No. 1047: Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act. California Legislature. https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240SB1047

European Parliament. (2023, June 1). EU AI Act: First regulation on artificial intelligence. European Parliament News. https://www.europarl.europa.eu/topics/en/article/20230601STO93804/eu-ai-act-first-regulation-on-artificial-intelligence

Gibson Dunn (2024, September 24). Regulating the Future: Eight Key Takeaways from California’s SB 1047, Pending with Governor Newsom. Gibson Dunn. https://www.gibsondunn.com/regulating-the-future-eight-key-takeaways-from-california-sb-1047-pending-with-governor-newsom/

Musk, E. [@elonmusk]. (2024, September 15). AI should be regulated like any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public [Tweet]. Twitter. https://x.com/elonmusk/status/1828205685386936567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1828205685386936567%7Ctwgr%5Eb0d709a708c02735de6f79bae39d6c06261b27d9%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.businessinsider.nl%2Felon-musk-says-hes-backing-californias-controversial-ai-bill%2F

Tan, K. W. K. (2024, 27 augustus). Elon Musk says he’s backing California’s controversial AI bill. Business Insider Nederland. https://www.businessinsider.nl/elon-musk-says-hes-backing-californias-controversial-ai-bill/

The Image set as the featured image was generated by ChatGPT

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A better outlook for all? How modern innovations are empowering the visually impaired

12

September

2024

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The presentation in our lecture of how AR glasses can help hearing impaired persons communicate better with their peers really inspired me to look into further cases where technological innovations have improved the quality of life for others – with a focus on visually impaired persons. Being able to “see” ones environment and interacting with it is a huge contribution to independence, which leads to a better quality of life. I would know, as I am completely dependent on my glasses!

I have compiled a few examples that I found very interesting – however there are many more out there!

Envision Glasses

Envision Glasses are AI powered smart glasses that use ChatGPT, Google glass Hardware, 5G connectivity to allow blind people to read printed text and process visual information by converting speech to text. While this Amsterdam based company was mentioned (but not yet discussed in class) I still wanted to highlight it here anyway, as their technology is really impressive. (Wie, 2023)

HearSee Mobility

HearSee takes a well known aid to the visually impaired – a cane – and improves it by using navigation tools to help the blind navigate to their destination. The users can press a button and say “Navigate to XY”. The cane sends signals to an App which in turn gives the user audible instructions on how to get to their destination. (Johnson, 2022)

.Lumen

This German start-up claims they “digitized” the guide dog that pulls blind people safely through different environments. The device, which is worn like a headband, scans and maps the surrounding area by using the same tech that self driving cars are using. If the glasses detect an obstacle, they send haptic feedback to the user, thereby “pulling” them away, just like the guide dog would. (Acces Tech Live, 2024)

Closing thoughts

Seeing how much development is already happening makes one optimistic about the future. I think it is especially fascinating that these technologies all tackle the same task (helping the visually impaired) very differently using different tech and hardware, giving users the freedom to choose what would best help them. As mentioned above, this list is by no means exhaustive and I can only encourage anyone to look up some of the amazing products that are being developed.

I wrote this blog post before knowing that we would be having a guest lecture from Envision glasses – I am really looking forward to the next lecture now, especially to see how my impression and the impression of my colleagues of this type of innovation will be in real life!

Resources used:

Access Tech Live. (2024, February 26). .Lumen Access Tech Live Talks Lumen Glasses for the Visually Impaired [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFkCkACbrJw

Johnson, M. (2022, July 1). Three Technologies For The Visually Impaired. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbestechcouncil/2022/07/01/three-technologies-for-the-visually-impaired/

Wie, W. (2023, December 15). Envision glasses use ChatGPT and Google Glass to help blind and low vision [Video]. Business Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/envision-glasses-chatgpt-google-glass-help-blind-visually-impaired-2023-12?international=true&r=US&IR=T

All images used in this blog post were generate by ChatGPT

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