Intelo.ai & Fluent Commerce partner to enhance AI order management

Intelo.ai and Fluent Commerce have announced a strategic partnership to integrate artificial intelligence agents with Fluent Commerce's order management platform.

The collaboration will connect Intelo.ai's AI-driven optimisation tools to Fluent Commerce's Fluent Order Management system. The companies are aiming to provide businesses with enhanced efficiency, cost control and improved customer satisfaction across their fulfillment operations.

Integration focus

According to the companies, the partnership will target four primary areas within order management and fulfillment: shipment consolidation, fulfillment distance optimisation, service level agreement (SLA) guardianship, and dynamic buffer curation.

The Shipment Consolidator Agent is designed to decrease split-shipment rates, potentially lowering them from around 17% to below 10%. By simulating optimal single-box fulfillment scenarios, it identifies areas for improvement and generates recommendations or actions - such as repositioning inventory between warehouses or stores to avoid unnecessary splits. The companies state that this approach aims to reduce freight expenditure, limit customer dissatisfaction, and lower carbon emissions.

The Fulfilment Distance Optimiser Agent focuses on reducing average shipping distances and zone-related carrier fees while maintaining delivery speed. This agent identifies products and locations with the highest distance penalties through micro-simulations and suggests adjustments to inventory placements to optimise shipping distances.

With respect to service level commitments, the SLA Guardian Agent seeks to proactively prevent late shipments. It monitors fulfillment events in real-time, calculates deviations from normal throughput levels, and can temporarily pause underperforming distribution nodes before SLAs are breached. The system also automatically updates network configurations and sends notifications to users regarding the status and anticipated resolution times.

The Dynamic Buffer Curator Agent aims to continually fine-tune inventory levels by adjusting minimum and maximum stock, safety stock, and display-only quantities on a per product-location basis. This is intended to reduce incidences of stock-outs and minimise the holding of obsolete inventory, thereby seeking to balance supply with expected demand and service requirements.

Strategic objectives

"Our partnership with Fluent Commerce represents a significant leap forward in intelligent order management," said Jeff Fish, Co-CEO at Intelo.ai. "By connecting our AI agents directly into Fluent's industry-leading OMS, we are providing businesses with real-time, actionable insights and automated capabilities that will transform their fulfillment operations, leading to substantial cost savings and improved customer experiences."

The integration will offer businesses both a "recommend-mode" - which delivers alerts and return on investment insights to team platforms such as Slack or Microsoft Teams - and an "auto-mode," capable of executing transfer orders directly within warehouse management or enterprise resource planning systems.

"We are thrilled to partner with Intelo.ai to bring these advanced AI capabilities to our customers," said Nicola Kinsella, Chief Strategy Officer at Fluent Commerce. "This collaboration underscores our commitment to providing the most innovative, AI-powered order management solutions on the market. The integration of Intelo.ai's agents will empower our customers to make smarter, more proactive decisions, ultimately driving greater efficiency and profitability."

Fluent Commerce's Fluent Order Management platform provides real-time inventory availability and order orchestration, used by international brands including JD Sports, L'Oréal, Prada Group, ALDO Group, LVMH, Dulux and Kingfisher. The platform is used for store and warehouse inventory management, in-store pick and pack, customer service, and reporting.

The companies have not disclosed commercial terms, nor have they provided a specific timeline for general availability of the integrated solution. Both parties have indicated that the initial integration will be focused on order management improvements.

The partnership between Intelo.ai and Fluent Commerce seeks to address ongoing challenges associated with supply chain complexity and changing consumer expectations within the retail and distribution sector.