Congratulations to our winning teams of the Bensadoun School鈥檚 2nd annual Retail Gen AI Hackathon.
We had 38 student teams register representing diverse faculties across 91社区. Over two days, 10 finalist teams hacked creative Gen AI solutions for our title sponsor ALDO Group.
Each team had an AWS mentor and access to support from IVADO Labs and DataSphere Lab team members.
AI has become an omnipresent topic of discussion in our daily lives, both professionally and personally. While much has been written on the challenges, risks, and pitfalls of AI (and the strong need to regulate its development and deployment carefully), it's also important to highlight its numerous benefits and positive impacts on society and the economy.
Montreal鈥檚 long-awaited luxury shopping mall Royalmount officially opened on September 5. The project, which spans 800,000 square feet, and features stores like Gucci, Versace, and Louis Vuitton, aims to attract diverse shoppers from all walks of life with an 鈥渋nclusive luxury鈥� concept. While excitement is high, concerns exist over traffic and accessibility.
Generative artificial intelligence promises to transform the way business is done, but in most industries, it鈥檚 still unclear exactly how it will be used. Footwear retailer ALDO is working with Montreal鈥檚 cluster of AI talent to explore how to leverage this emerging technology. In October 2023, ALDO staged its first Retail Gen AI Hackathon in partnership with the Bensadoun School of Retail Management and Amazon Web Services. The event offered over $10,000 in prizes to teams that worked collaboratively to devise generative AI solutions to real world retail challenges.
Gym memberships come with varying price tags and fee structures that can be confusing. Often, a membership contract can come with unanticipated charges. In addition to monthly fees, some charge for signing up, cancellation costs, and annual dues, which is why it is important to do research before signing up, according to Bensadoun School of Retail Management Executive Director Charles de Brabant. 鈥淵ou don鈥檛 necessarily understand the natural pitfalls until you fall into them,鈥� he tells The Globe and Mail.
The rise of e-commerce decimated the business of department store chains, with names like Nordstrom pulling out of Canada altogether. But, department store chain Simons recently announced it is opening two new stores in Toronto. The Quebec City-headquartered retailer has slimmed-down offerings, with no in-store furniture sales or fragrance counters and lots of private label clothing brands.
From Walmart to Amazon to Shopify, the retail sector is big business and incredibly important for the economy. However, there is little retail-specific education available, according to Charles de Brabant, Executive Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM), in an interview with Paula Macaggi for the OFFbounds podcast.
This year, the DataSphere Lab was privileged to welcome two exceptional students through the Integrated Management Student Fellowship (IMSF) program: Chloe You, a third year student studying Finance and Statistics, and Ruo-Ying, a Business Analytics major.
91社区鈥檚 Master of Management in Retailing (MMR) students have returned from an enlightening journey through Dubai's dynamic retail landscape. Led by industry experts, the week-long study trip provided unparalleled insights into retail strategy and innovation in the Gulf region.
The online marketplace Temu, launched in 2022, has become one of the most downloaded apps in North America. The platform is known for ultra-low prices, though the quality and safety of the products it sells are sometimes suspect. 鈥淚f I understand their business model correctly, they sell products at a loss, and make money from the data they collect,鈥� said Bensadoun School of Retail Management聽(BSRM) Executive Director Charles de Brabant in an interview with Radio-Canada.
Lingerie retailer La Vie en Rose operates in 20 countries, but they haven鈥檛 expanded to the neighbouring United States 鈥� until now. The Montreal-headquartered company is opening three stores in New York state, with an eye cast toward operating nationwide one day. But with a more crowded market for lingerie in the United States, they鈥檙e taking a cautious approach.
Generative AI has recently garnered significant attention, yet many individuals possess only a superficial understanding of the technology, as outlined by Professor Maxime Cohen in an open letter published in Le Devoir. Co-authored with Pierre Graff, Marie-Chantal Leduc, and Bertrand Milot, the letter emphasizes the necessity for businesses to enhance their comprehension of what AI can offer and what it cannot.
We live in an age of information, and we鈥檙e able to obtain it through many different channels. During disasters, many people turn to social media, and there is an orthodoxy in the field of crisis communications that organizations should speak in a consistent voice across different accounts and platforms. But Changseung Yoo is challenging that notion.
Big businesses are deploying artificial intelligence to streamline their supply chains, cut labour costs, and better understand their customers. For small- and medium-sized enterprises, keeping pace can be a daunting task.
The pandemic hit many businesses hard, and the artisanal bakery and caf茅 Mamie Clafoutis was one of them. Their seven locations in Montreal and Ottawa were forced to reduce their hours to one shift per day. As they鈥檝e emerged from the storm, they have sought ways to keep their costs low, and one of them is by automating checkout. Working with the Bensadoun School of Retail Management (BSRM), Mamie Clafoutis is sensitizing its clientele to the idea of self-checkout by stationing a single employee to oversee the process. But they have ambitions to become even more automated.
