Afresh, the AI platform for grocery, today announced it has joined the Built-On Partner Program from Databricks, the data and AI company. Together, the two platforms connect retailers’ existing data infrastructure with Afresh’s grocery-specific intelligence. Built on the Databricks Data + AI Platform, Afresh helps retailers turn governed enterprise data into AI-powered operational decisions. Databricks provides an open, unified and governed foundation for data and AI, and Afresh handles the grocery-specific work of keeping fresh data clean and turning it into the ordering, production, and inventory decisions stores act on across fresh and center store.
Grocery data often lives across disconnected systems, making it difficult to access and manage. Databricks unifies data and AI on a single, governed platform, enabling retailers to break down data silos and make trusted data accessible across the business. Even once data is centralized and accessible, there’s more to unlock. In fresh, grocers face challenges like changing display sizes, inventory drift, and multiple vendor codes for a single item. Afresh identifies and corrects data errors and trues up its inventory estimates using inputs from the store, so the decisions built on that data stay grounded in what’s actually happening on the floor.
Through OpenSharing, the open sharing protocol formerly known as Delta Sharing, Afresh connects directly to a retailer’s own governed environment and shares standardized store and department data back into it.
For retailers on Databricks and Afresh, the pairing connects their data strategy to operational and strategic impact in the store, and helps maintain the integrity of challenging grocery data over time. By combining Databricks’ unified data and AI foundation with Afresh’s grocery-specific AI, retailers can turn trusted data into actionable intelligence to improve inventory accuracy, reduce food waste and drive more efficient store operations.
“Databricks is best in class at centralizing and structuring data, and that gives IT one well-governed foundation. Afresh keeps grocery data clean as it flows in and turns it into store orders and production plans. Together, retailers get a stack that’s simpler to manage and high-impact decisions their stores can act on,” said Kristina Kemmer, Chief Technology Officer at Afresh.
