OTTAWA, ON, June 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Kinaxis Inc. (TSX: KXS), the authority in driving agility for fast, confident decision-making in an unpredictable world, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Toronto-based Rubikloud, a disruptive, emerging provider of AI solutions that automate supply chain prescriptive analytics and decision-making in the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. Globally-recognized retailers and CPG manufacturers in the health and beauty, household and grocery segments use Rubikloud's AI-based products today. Their offerings include demand forecasting and automation to manage and optimize trade promotions, pricing and assortment to drive product demand and dramatically improve financial results. Kinaxis will enhance RapidResponse's demand planning capabilities with the Rubikloud offerings, anticipating initial opportunities in the company's rapidly-growing CPG customer base and over time for other industries such as life sciences. The acquisition also offers Kinaxis a springboard into the enterprise retail industry.

As we are all in the business of satisfying consumers and consumer demand controls business, we read this report with interest. It looks at what consumers want from the likes of Tesco, Aldi, Sainsburys, Waitrose, Lidl, Asda, Morrisons and many more supermarkets and retailers that sell food in huge volumes. For hospitality businesses that service the same consumers the message is vital, consumers want to give their custom to businesses that are transparent with their sustainability credentials. Many hospitality businesses like Bartlett Mitchell, CH&CO, BaxterStorey and others are already transparent with their sustainability credentials, and we report on these regularly. Their market leading positions are linked in our opinion to leading the market in sustainability.

In the past 18 months, Toronto has become a magnet for artificial intelligence researchers, drawing some of the field's leading figures to set up labs here. Popular narratives suggest this brain gain will cement Canada's largest city in the top tier of global tech centres. But look beyond the hype, and warning lights are flashing that Toronto is headed in a different direction – more ivory tower than economic power. Toronto has to get better at turning its AI research into products customers want to buy – before somebody else does. Toronto has been developing a base of world-class research since the 1980s, including the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, the University of Toronto and, most recently, the Vector Institute.

While speaking at Shopify's annual conference in Toronto a few weeks ago, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got in some trouble for a few choice words. Calling for Canada to have "a little more swagger" when promoting its homegrown innovations on the global stage. The rival Conservative Party jumped on his comments, openly criticizing him. In response, Shopify's CEO penned an op-ed in The Globe and Mail defending Trudeau's remarks. While this might sound like mild drama, the sentiment comes at a time when global giants are already noticing Canada's rapid growth within certain high-tech sectors, and specifically those related to artificial intelligence.

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Leveraging data from disparate sources to provide more personalized promotions to consumers can seem like a fool's errand. The efforts, however, can be rewarded with higher key performance indicators (e.g., click throughs, conversions, average order values, loyalty). As part of our, "4 Companies You Didn't Know Worked in Artificial Intelligence" feature, Website Magazine caught up with Rubikloud CEO Kerry Liu to learn more about how his company helps retailers gather data from consumer behaviors and use it in meaningful ways. What are some common problems of retail promotions? Retailers tend to struggle with gaining a holistic view of their customers due to outdated legacy solutions.

'Data is not about insights, it's about generating money,' says Rubikloud's chief product officer Ever since the financial crash of 2008, businesses around the world have struggled to grow at the same levels they once enjoyed – but big data and machine learning could help turn things around, and help companies reconnect with customers. "The reality now is this plateaued, zero-growth type of world, where you're in the 0.5-1 per cent [range]," Ayoub said, speaking at WIRED Retail 2016. There's a lot of companies that do more small scale retail that are seeing enormous amounts of growth but in general, this is the kind of climate we're living in." Ayoub isn't concerned so much with why this is happening, but rather how retailers are reacting to the change. One way businesses have tried to keep their costs down is by consolidating, then leveraging greater purchasing power to buy stock at lower prices. "Big fish buy big fish, then bigger fish buy them," said Ayoub. "That allows them to pressure vendors to push down prices.