Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

newsworthy

Infor to offer Coleman AI platform through Amazon Alexa

Digital Assistant product supports conversational interface to offer insights, automate tasks, firm says.

Business software vendor Infor today said it has made its Coleman artificial intelligence (AI) software product available to users through verbal interfaces, and will soon support a connection through Amazon.com Inc.'s Alexa digital assistant.

Offering a conversational pOréal to Coleman AI can maximize human workers' potential by enabling natural language extensibility and access to Infor's CloudSuite family of human capital management (HCM) solutions, the company said at its Inforum user conference in Washington, D.C. this week.


Known as the Infor Coleman Digital Assistant, the product offers custom building of skills (the term for AI-powered apps), a voice user experience (UX) and navigation, and natural language processing (NLP) extensibility. As a digital assistant, Coleman uses a conversational user interface to chat, hear, talk, and—in the future—to analyze images, the company said.

Together, those capabilities can provide four productivity tools for users, Infor said: advising them with intelligent insights, augmenting people's work with key information at critical decision points, automating repetitive tasks, and conversing to enable more efficient interactions.

The Infor Coleman Digital Assistant is expected to be integrated with Amazon Alexa for Business - which provides tools to manage Alexa devices, enroll users, and configure skills with added security across those devices - by the end of 2018. Supplementing it with image recognition capabilities will also let the platform handle barcode and QR code scanning and custom image training when Infor Coleman Vision is expected to launch in Spring 2019, the firm said.

The company also said it plans to add a version of its AI for embedded machine learning models, scheduled to launch in the Spring of 2019. This Infor Coleman AI Platform will be a platform that operates below an application's surface, mining data and using analytical tools to help improve processes such as inventory management, transportation routing, and predictive maintenance.

"The Infor Coleman AI Platform can help customers better analyze their data and give them the ability to start asking questions they didn't even know they should be asking," Rick Rider, the Infor Coleman product director, said in a statement. "It can automate tasks that were error-prone, which can help organizations save money by avoiding certain issues or taking advantage of specific opportunities more quickly."

The announcement was Infor's second rollout of expanded capabilities of its Coleman AI platform today, following its launch of a supply chain visibility and artificial intelligence software product called Infor Control Center that it said can help users make their supply chains become self-orchestrated in most of their daily decisions.

The Latest

Artificial Intelligence

AI: Is it the real deal?

More Stories

Logistics economy picked up speed in January

Logistics Managers' Index

Logistics economy picked up speed in January

Economic activity in the logistics industry expanded in January, growing at its fastest clip in more than two years, according to the latest Logistics Managers’ Index (LMI) report, released this week.

The LMI jumped nearly five points from December to a reading of 62, reflecting continued steady growth in the U.S. economy along with faster-than-expected inventory growth across the sector as retailers, wholesalers, and manufacturers attempted to manage the uncertainty of tariffs and a changing regulatory environment. The January reading represented the fastest rate of expansion since June 2022, the LMI researchers said.

Keep ReadingShow less

Featured

Disrupting the furniture supply chain: An interview with Jay Rogers

Disrupting the furniture supply chain: An interview with Jay Rogers

As commodities go, furniture presents its share of manufacturing and distribution challenges. For one thing, it's bulky. Second, its main components—wood and cloth—are easily damaged in transit. Third, much of it is manufactured overseas, making for some very long supply chains with all the associated risks. And finally, completed pieces can sit on the showroom floor for weeks or months, tying up inventory dollars and valuable retail space.

In other words, the furniture market is ripe for disruption. And John "Jay" Rogers wants to be the catalyst. In 2022, he cofounded a company that takes a whole new approach to furniture manufacturing—one that leverages the power of 3D printing and robotics. Rogers serves as CEO of that company, Haddy, which essentially aims to transform how furniture—and all elements of the "built environment"—are designed, manufactured, distributed, and, ultimately, recycled.

Keep ReadingShow less
chart of GenAI effect on workforce

Gartner: GenAI tools create anxiety among employees

Generative AI (GenAI) is being deployed by 72% of supply chain organizations, but most are experiencing just middling results for productivity and ROI, according to a survey by Gartner, Inc.

That’s because productivity gains from the use of GenAI for individual, desk-based workers are not translating to greater team-level productivity. Additionally, the deployment of GenAI tools is increasing anxiety among many employees, providing a dampening effect on their productivity, Gartner found.

Keep ReadingShow less
warehouse worker driving forklift between racks

German 3PL Arvato acquires two U.S. logistics firms

The German third party logistics provider (3PL) Arvato this week acquired the U.S.-headquartered companies Carbel LLC and United Customs Services, saying the move would grow its client base, particularly in the fashion, beauty, and lifestyle segments.

According to Arvato, it made the move in order to better serve the U.S. e-commerce sector, which has experienced high growth rates in recent years and is expected to grow year-on-year by 5% within the next five years.

Keep ReadingShow less
photo collage of warehouse tech

Supply chain pros are wary of inflation and labor woes

The top worries that supply chain leaders hope to address with new innovations this year include inflationary concerns (68%) and labor shortages (50%), according to a survey on innovation from the third-party logistics provider (3PL) Kenco.

And many of them will have a budget to do it, since 51% of supply chain professionals with existing innovation budgets saw an increase earmarked for 2025, suggesting an even greater emphasis on investing in new technologies to meet rising demand, Kenco said in its “2025 Supply Chain Innovation” survey.

Keep ReadingShow less