Aimondo: Hyperautomation of online prices through Artificial Intelligence / Opportunities and risks of digital process automation for dynamic price adjustment in online commerce

Executives in the online economy use artificial intelligence (AI) as accelerator for digital business initiatives. In online retailing, the right price for products is the decisive criterion for sales and determines earnings.

If the price becomes too high, sales collapse. If it is too low, earnings decline and jeopardize the existence of the company. Both scenarios are the cornerstones between which the right decision is made. Every day for thousands of products. And this in the midst of several suppliers for identical goods is a task that cannot be efficiently accomplished by human labor in the necessary quality and time. With hyperautomation and AI very well.

“The difference to past automation waves is that machines are becoming increasingly intelligent,” explains Christoph Fuchs, Professor of the Chair of Marketing at the Technical University of Munich. Business process automation in online commerce is a decisive criterion for success. At all times, we must keep an eye on the competition. Usually there are forty to seventy suppliers with identical goods that have to be constantly analyzed. Availability, delivery time, evaluations and ultimately the 100% certainty that the same performance is actually compared. With an assortment of hundreds, thousands and more items, this task is as complicated as it is extensive. In any case, several thousand product information items have to be found, recorded, sorted and evaluated every day. From this mixture of information, in combination with your own goals and conditions, a product price is determined that is attractive enough to generate the desired number of orders in the allotted time.

Aimondo (https://aimondo.com/) , start-up from Düsseldorf supplies the data on command. With artificial intelligence the daily current market situation is determined from all offers in the Internet. And with a precision that only computers can provide around the clock every day. The self-learning algorithms (ML) calculate exactly the right prices from the market situation in conjunction with the goals of the online providers who use Aimondo’s technological lead and feed these results fully automatically into online store systems. Without human intervention, 365 days a year. Since 2016, the company has been developing and supplying its customers every day with data that turns success into a mathematically calculable formula. Such technology-supported automation of complex business processes is known as hyper-automation; it is an essential part of digital transformation.

The combination of artificial intelligence, ML, cloud computing and the most modern form of digital performance, namely software-as-a-service instead of extensive programs, raises the question of opportunities and risks. With Aimondo Online Intelligence and automated pricing, the otherwise often discussed areas such as vulnerability, ethics or data protection no longer apply. After all, it is all about public product information. Only commercial data for pricing has an internal company confidentiality character. So a risk assessment can be limited to system precision, reliability and general economic data.

Leading organizations expect the number of artificial intelligence (AI) projects to double within this year. Professor Klaus Schwab (economist and founder of the Word Economic Forum) has been talking about the 4th Industrial Revolution since 2016: “Unprecedented and simultaneous advances in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, quantum computing and others are redefining industries, blurring traditional boundaries and creating new opportunities.

In these fields, Aimondo’s Artificial Intelligence is the most important one, because AI extends into all other technical megatrends, as well as into eCommerce and online, which is currently and perspectively the fastest growing segment. The remaining risk is therefore the technical feasibility. Since the system has already proven itself in its basic features on a daily basis for more than four years and has so far not been affected by failures or incomplete or incorrectly supplied data, we can expect the best stability in the future.

Heinrich Müller, digital pioneer and managing co-founder of Aimondo GmbH assures: “Practically speaking, we do not expect any unusual risks. All basic system functions, the AI structures, the product determinations function by means of iterative probability approximations and pattern recognition. The algorithms for concrete pricing in connection with the constraints are as sophisticated as they are effective. Data center power is used via the cloud in an almost unlimited scalable and fail-safe manner with pinpoint accuracy. The use by our business customers becomes more intuitive from version to version and provides meaningful condensed information. So what else should prevent us from expanding globally?

The capital to build up our own international sales bridgeheads as well as to acquire all or part of today’s market competitors, who almost without exception still work with conventional technology, will be available through the second round of bonds. Further expansion steps can be financed by the parent company Aimondo AG from Switzerland by issuing shares. An initial public offering is therefore already in concrete planning.

Even COVID19 has not stopped the trend. Thomas Baierlein, General Manager and designated CMO of Aimondo AG (http://aimondo.ag) states: “The virus has an influence on the global development. Society, working environments, communication and especially online commerce are undergoing enormous changes. E-commerce has already grown rapidly by 2020. In the middle of the ongoing corona pandemic, e-commerce giant Amazon, for example, can see itself as the clear winner of the current situation. In Q2 alone, sales are growing by 40 percent compared to last year. In our opinion, the only effective catch-up tactic of the pursuers can only be technological quantum leaps. Aimondo offers a significant milestone as a low-cost and immediately available service”.

Under these conditions the technological leap is possible. Artificial intelligence from Germany does not yet have any outstanding world importance. Aimondo sets new standards in specific areas. With it one wants to reach US-American value and profit dimensions. Not completely risk-free but completely with all chances. The founders, the team and already more than 200 investors are counting on it. Just like numerous progressive and successful companies. The TOP 100 award as one of the most innovative companies in Germany in June of this year was one of the best visible recognitions for the time being.

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