GEC NEWS WIREZebra Technologies Corporation has announced several new products and AI innovations for the retail industry. Zebra’s solutions will be showcased in booth #3303 as part of Zebra’s AI-powered Modern Store at NRF 2025 Retail’s Big Show on Jan. 12-14, 2025, at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in New York.
Zebra is unveiling the Zebra Mobile Computing AI Suite, a comprehensive set of tools that includes an AI data capture software development kit (SDK) and example applications optimized for select Zebra Android mobile devices. This suite facilitates the development of AI applications, enabling customers, developers, and independent software vendors (ISV) to easily integrate cutting-edge vision AI capabilities into their mobile applications.
Zebra has leveraged these AI capabilities to enable frontline workers to easily, accurately and quickly capture workflow context and integrate that directly to Zebra Companion, a new and comprehensive suite of AI agents specifically designed to empower retail frontline workers. This multimodal generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) solution is being developed in collaboration with select customers to work with frontline retail workers to improve productivity and elevate the customer experience.
Zebra Companion provides frontline workers instant access to critical information and troubleshooting assistance as they prioritize and execute routine and issue-prompted tasks. Zebra is committed to customers’ data privacy and ethical AI practices to ensure the secure and responsible use of AI technology. Zebra Companion is available starting in the second quarter of 2025 to select customers and requires admission to our early access pilot program. The suite includes:
- Knowledge agent that offers the ability to conversationally interact with job aids and standard operating procedures (SOPs) to facilitate faster onboarding, giving associates the information they need when they need it.
- Sales agent that assists with product-related questions, real-time queries on product availability and pricing as well as cross-sell and upsell recommendations for associates during customer interactions.
- Zebra Device agent that ensures optimal usage and maintenance of Zebra devices by providing troubleshooting and contextual data integrations, reducing device downtime so retail operations are not disrupted.
- Merchandising agent that combines advanced on-device image recognition technology to assess shelf health and augment workflows for frontline teams to address merchandising issues, such as shelf gaps, misplacements and planograming issues, and inaccurate pricing and signage.
Zebra developed the Merchandising agent as a co-innovation project to help a customer explore how associate and customer experiences can be elevated, and visitors to Zebra’s NRF booth will see the capabilities of the Merchandising agent in action. In the future, Zebra partners, ISVs and developers will be able to deploy agents of their own to interface with Zebra Companion to deliver a common multi-modal user interface to frontline workers on Zebra’s industry-leading solution platform.
“For years, we’ve been embedding AI into our products, elevating outcomes for our customers and partners,” said Yogesh Kulkarni, Vice President, AI Strategy, Zebra Technologies. “Our AI-enabled solutions are shaping the future of frontline operations by creating new ways of working. We’re proud to collaborate with our extensive partner community and customers to enhance our AI and GenAI capabilities to automate workflows, streamline processes and boost efficiency, making work easier every day.”
