ON4OFF Project – Artificial Intelligence to Support Regional Retailers

The ON4OFF project, funded by the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), wants to create smarter links between brick-and-mortar retailers and their online offerings, and thus make the regional retail sector more competitive with online shops. The plan is to make this possible through the use of artificial intelligence intertwined with a systematic use of adaptive case management algorithms developed by the University of Duisburg-Essen. JSC, together with Adesso AG, is responsible for the development of machine learning algorithms that will improve customers’ shopping experience in the retail sector.

Although JSC develops a wide range of machine learning algorithms for science and engineering applications, many of them can also be slightly modified and thus used in retail applications. The ON4OFF project will take advantage of JSC’s modular supercomputing approach to gain customer insights faster. It will also enable a new culture of data sharing between retailers and consumers, and a smooth transition of data flows between online and offline customer data and shopping processes. Project partner Parfümerie Pieper will implement the concepts in its flagship stores, while the overall project will work on broadening concepts for application in other commercial sectors. Over the next three years, the project will receive some € 2.1 million in funding from NRW’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, Innovation, Digitalisation and Energy and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF). The project partners will contribute another € 1.2 million. Further details, including a list of project partners, can be found on the webpage https://www.on-4-off.de.

Contact: Prof. Morris Riedel

from JSC News No. 266, 14 June 2019