In an ambitious leap forward in supply chain visibility, Wiliot has unveiled its latest innovation: WiliBot. This generative AI chatbot seamlessly merges with any ambient IoT-connected product, facilitating natural-language dialogues that promise to transform how businesses and consumers interact with the physical world.
By harnessing the power of generative AI alongside a vast repository of real-time ambient data, WiliBot enables companies to have insightful conversations with their products and supply chains. This technology allows inquiries such as: “What’s the shelf life of this product?” or “What is the carbon footprint of this item, and why?”. This newfound ability to converse with products is pivotal for making informed business decisions and driving sustainable practices.
“Ambient IoT and generative AI are increasingly symbiotic technologies,” explained Tal Tamir, CEO of Wiliot. “Ambient IoT generates vast amounts of data about everyday items, while GenAI interprets this data to deliver meaningful insights. The vast datasets supplied by ambient IoT offer GenAI unprecedented opportunities to analyze and describe products, materials, and supply chains.”
Central to Wiliot’s offering is its Ambient Data Platform, featuring stamp-sized, self-powered IoT Pixels. These devices can be affixed to products, packaging, and logistics containers, communicating essential data—such as location, temperature, humidity, and carbon footprint—via Bluetooth to the Wiliot Cloud. Businesses can then leverage this data for comprehensive analysis.
Through advanced AI and machine learning algorithms, Wiliot’s platform can identify critical supply chain events and autonomously generate alerts. For example, the platform can detect if shipments of perishable goods are exposed to unsafe temperatures and trigger immediate actions to mitigate potential spoilage.
“Although our foray into generative AI is recent, Wiliot has a legacy of pioneering AI and machine learning applications for ambient IoT data,” continued Tamir. “As more enterprises adopt our Ambient Data Platform, the demand for GenAI capabilities has surged. Our response is WiliBot—the first meaningful integration of ambient IoT with AI.”
Initial pilot programs with key enterprise customers are set to commence immediately, with a broader rollout anticipated by late 2024 into 2025. During this phase, businesses will utilize WiliBot to probe into their ambient IoT-enabled products and supply chains, gaining never-before-seen insights.
Looking ahead, this technology will not remain confined to enterprises. Plans are underway to integrate WiliBot into consumer-facing applications, enabling shoppers to query their products directly in-store or at home. Consumers will be able to ask questions about a product’s carbon footprint, material composition, ethical sourcing, and more, driving a new level of transparency and informed decision-making.
“Wiliot’s platform already provides unmatched intelligence about an immense array of products,” concluded Tamir. “With WiliBot, we’re enabling businesses and eventually consumers to gain a thorough understanding of these products through natural language interaction. Essentially, we are making it possible for your products to ‘talk’.”
Built upon a sophisticated large language model (LLM), WiliBot embodies the convergence of ambient IoT data and GenAI’s analytical prowess. This combination is set to revolutionize supply chain visibility and management.
The incredible potential of integrating ambient IoT and AI has already borne fruit in projects with leading food retailers. Wiliot’s Ambient Data Platform has exposed significant food shrink rates—wherein approximately 5% of food is lost, damaged, or spoiled before reaching store shelves. Remarkably, Wiliot’s platform has been able to address and mitigate two-thirds of these issues, enhancing food safety, boosting consumer satisfaction, and reducing costs. With WiliBot, these invaluable insights will be more accessible across organizations, democratizing data and driving strategic decision-making.
In essence, WiliBot represents a transformative step towards a future where every product can communicate its story, providing unprecedented visibility into supply chains and fostering a new era of informed, sustainable commerce.