Byte-Sized AI is a biweekly column from WWD sister publication Sourcing Journal that covers all things artificial intelligence — from start-up funding, to newly inked partnerships, to just-launched, AI-powered capabilities from major retailers, software providers and supply chain players.
Accelerating Circularity Teams With Dhana to Build AI Systems
Accelerating Circularity announced this week that it has joined forces with technology provider Dhana Inc. to explore AI as a way to highlight the work the nonprofit has done to move the industry’s circularity efforts forward.
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Eileen Mockus, chief operating officer of Accelerating Circularity, said the goal of the project is to make the organization’s breadth of information on textile-to-textile recycling accessible to brands and players throughout the fashion and apparel industries.
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“We have directories on different aspects of the industry that are needed to drive toward circularity for textiles. We have databases of information that we’ve been gathering and collecting, and we want to turn that into usable information by the industry,” Mockus told Sourcing Journal.
Accelerating Circularity and Dhana Inc. believe the partnership will allow them to evaluate responsible use cases for AI that help move sustainable and circular practices along; today, Mockus said, the efficiency to make progress happen rapidly simply doesn’t exist.
Eloquii Founder’s New Start-up Bags $2 Million
Eloquii’s founder has been busy cooking up her next big business — and it just bagged a $2 million pre-seed round, led by the Female Founders Fund.
The start-up aims to provide “a single source of truth for inventory” by leveraging AI-powered systems to bridge gaps in companies’ data streams.
Mariah Chase, cofounder and chief executive officer of Ekyam, said her time spent entrenched in the retail industry showed her that retailers have simply given in to the inevitability of inventory mismatch and lagging data.
But, she countered, it doesn’t have to be that way. “The industry has really gotten used to what they see as an acceptable level of pain,” she told Sourcing Journal. “I think AI is going to blow that up — no more pain.”
Ekyam’s main goal is to solve that problem with middleware, which connects disjointed, siloed technology systems in a company’s stack and allows data to flow through in real time. That could change the game when it comes to inventory management because it effectively means that the systems can talk to each other with greater ease; rather than receiving updated data every hour, or even every 24 hours, all systems can access real-time data on inventory.
The system can be used to inform inventory decisions for e-commerce and in-store operations, depending on which of its systems a retailer gives Ekyam access to interconnect. Ekyam also has an agentic offering, like so many companies vying to grab contracts with brands and retailers today.
Austin, Texas-based Contoro Robotics scored a $12 million Series A round for its AI-powered robots that have the capability to unload parcels situated inside trucks and containers.
Contoro Robotics Gets $12 Million Series A for Logistics Robots
Investors included Doosan, Coupang, Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund, IMM, SV Investment, KB Investment, Kakao Ventures and Future Play. The company had previously raised $10 million.
Contoro uses sensors and cameras to help guide its robotic arms, which have special gripping capabilities that enable them to suction boxes from the sides, rather than only the top. That, it notes on its site, is particularly useful in containers, where the tops of boxes are typically inaccessible to begin with.
The company plans to use its new capital injection to expand into new markets, launch a palletization system and scale its unloading robot fleet. Customers pay a per-container fee to Contoro, rather than a flat rate.
Contoro believes its robotics can help tackle cost and labor challenges in warehouses, distribution centers and fulfillment centers. The robots take a human-in-the-loop approach, which it contends yields higher accuracy and safety.
Mok Yun, CEO and founder of Contoro, said he believes the company’s technology has the power to change workers’ lives for the better.
“Unloading trailers is one of the most physically demanding jobs in the warehouse, yet it remains largely manual,” Yun said in a statement. “We’re bringing AI-powered automation that enhances reliability, safety and efficiency — allowing warehouse teams to shift from hazardous, repetitive tasks to more strategic and value-added roles.”
Raspberry AI Brings AI-powered Photo Shoots to Life
AI image generation start-up Raspberry AI announced late last month that it had launched three new tools that would enable marketers and merchandisers to create photorealistic, AI-generated images for campaigns, product detail pages and other content.
The first of the tools offers on-body visualization, which are meant to give marketing and merchandising teams the chance to style items on AI-generated models, in turn showing a clear picture of how the garment is likely to look in real life, on a human.
Another generates backgrounds, which means that if a brand or retailer has studio-grade imagery of a product, they can swap out the sterile studio background for any location or destination. That, Raspberry contends, means that companies can offer a broader array of imagery to different markets — for instance, showing a picture of a model in front of the Empire State Building for the New York market while simultaneously offering up a picture of a model near the Golden Gate Bridge in the San Francisco Market. It can also help companies save money and time associated with traditional destination shoots.
The final tool allows marketers and merchandisers to translate 3D avatars — often used by merchandisers to understand a product’s fit — into AI-generated photorealistic models to create marketing content, for either small- or large-scale engagements.
Cheryl Liu, Raspberry’s founder and CEO, said the industry continues to advance its understanding and use of AI, warranting the creation of new tools to meet expectations and streamline processes.