SAN DIEGO – Robotics and artificial intelligence software company Brain Corp announced in October that it is partnering with electronic retail shelf label maker JRTech Solutions to expand its AI-powered inventory management platform to retailers across Canada.
JRTech, the largest provider of electronic retail labels in Canada, will be the exclusive partner provider of Brain Corp’s BrainOS Sense Suite, which utilizes inventory monitoring robots and AI to help retailers, logistics companies and other businesses more efficiently track and manage inventory, while bypassing the potential for human error.
“One of the challenges we’ve noticed that retailers have is that even though we’re able to collect immense amounts of data around what the state of the shelf looks like, one of the challenges is how do we effectively action upon that data,” said Brain Corp Chief Revenue Officer Chris Lobdell.
Through the connection between JRTech’s electronic shelf labels and Brain Corp’s inventory monitoring autonomous robots, Lobdell said retail store workers can be notified in real time when an item needs to be restocked. Electronic labels can also be updated in real time to inform customers that items are out of stock.
Lobdell and JRTech President and CEO Diego Mazzone argued the combination of each company’s respective technology can be utilized in virtually any retail, manufacturing or logistics environment.
“There’s a limitation to how much staff or how much any one staff could do in a day,” Mazzone said. “Technology is there to be able to facilitate that, and that’s out goal, to be able to allow humans to do what humans do best and allow for repetitive things that need to be done accurately but more efficiently, to get that over to technology.”
Brain Corp’s inventory management technology and floor care robots are already in use by companies like Kroger, Menard’s and Sam’s Club, as well as entities like Denver Public Schools, various airports and logistics companies.
Brain Corp has some 37,000 robots deployed around the world, with a little more than half of that fleet in the United States.
Lobdell noted that retailers experience high rates of turnover and often do not have enough employees working at any one time to conduct rudimentary tasks like checking shelves for inventory and mopping floors.
Retailers in the U.S. also lose scores of money due to empty shelves. NielsenIQ found that retail stores lost $82 billion in 2021 due to items being out of stock.
“It really comes down to how big of a problem is this for a retailer or … an industrial customer like a distributor or warehouse,” Lobdell said.
Mazzone said JRTech’s partner retailers have repeatedly given feedback that they’re looking for technology that will make their daily operations more efficient and cut down on potential staffing issues that eat up additional time and money.
He added that younger workers also tend to have a greater sense of pride working for companies that utilize technology that leads to greater efficiency.
“It’s actually kind of a win, win, win,” he said. “(The) customer’s happy, the retailer’s happy and the staff is feeling more empowered.”
According to data from ABI Research, electronic price tags are expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 19% from 2024 to 2030, while inventory management robots are expected to grow by 17.2% during that timeframe.
Mazzone said the partnership between the two companies should be more attractive to retailers and other businesses than either of them individually because the utility of Brain Corp’s technology and JRTech’s are each complimentary.
“The core is that each solution has to be on its own merits, something that a retailer could say I would invest in that one solution alone,” Mazzone said. “But together, there’s more ability to generate an ROI and you’re tapping into enhanced capabilities.”
Brain Corp.
FOUNDED: 2009
CEO: David Pinn
HEADQUARTERS: San Diego, Sorrento Valley
EMPLOYEES: 240+
BUSINESS: Robotics and AI software
FUNDING: $193 million in venture capital raised
WEBSITE: braincorp.com
CONTACT: [email protected]
NOTABLE: Brain Corp has some 37,000 robots deployed globally, roughly half of which are in the United States
