![\"Woolworths](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/1788057515_967_ImageResizer.ashx.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nKey points<\/p>\n
Woolworths has revealed it uses an AI tool called Team Assist to field 7000 employee inquiries per week, escalating only one in 10 to a human.
\nAn AI marketing tool has cut production of the weekly shopper catalogue from a week to a few hours, chief executive Amanda Bardwell said.
\nWoolworths’ head of SAP Murtuza Imdadali disclosed two more AI tools being trialled, a training chatbot for its promotions app and a system for measuring inventory dimensions.<\/p>\n
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Woolworths has started to disclose its inward-focused efforts to use AI, in the last month alone revealing how it uses the technology in two areas of the business it hasn\u2019t previously discussed publicly.<\/p>\n
Chief executive Amanda Bardwell took the opportunity of the group’s full year results announcement to reveal that supermarket giant is using two AI tools for employee assistance and to accelerate its weekly marketing campaigns.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe AI will help deliver better experiences for customers, for teams, and will help us transform our operations and workflows,\u201d Bardwell said.<\/p>\n
Both are having a \u201creal impact\u201d, according to Bardwell.<\/p>\n
An AI employee support tool called ‘Team Assist’ acts as a decision-making aid that is designed to remove the need for using humans to take employee inquiries.<\/p>\n
Bardwell said that Team Assist fielded 7000 employee inquires per week in the last financial year, with the need for escalation to a human removed in nine out of 10 cases.<\/p>\n
Woolworths’ newly-revealed AI marketing tool appears not to have been given a friendly name like Team Assist, but the company said it had sped up production of its weekly shopper catalogue \u201cfrom a week to a few hours\u201d.<\/p>\n
Two more AI tools break cover<\/p>\n
In addition to these two tools, Woolworths\u2019 head of SAP Murtuza Imdadali revealed that the supermarket giant is quietly trialling at least two more AI tools at a software industry event held earlier this month.<\/p>\n
One of these, a training chatbot, also appears destined for the hands of Woolworths’ marketing staff.<\/p>\n
Imdadali said the training chatbot, which guides staff on how to use its promotions app, is \u201chopefully going live soon\u201d.<\/p>\n
Like Team Assist, the ultimate goal of the training chatbot, he said, is to reduce load on its support operations.<\/p>\n
Imdadali said that Woolworths’ promotions app is \u201ccomplex\u201d and required “a learning curve\u201d to use it effectively.<\/p>\n
Instead of calling support or approaching colleagues, staff could use the chatbot to surface answers from years of training materials that Woolworths has stored away in its corporate data.<\/p>\n
\u201cA user who gets stuck on a particular screen or needs some understanding of how to fill in some of the questions that are being asked or what are the expectations, they can get an immediate response. Presently, when they get stuck, they generally log a service call. It goes to our support teams, or they ask their colleagues, I assume.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good side effect of that is the user experience turnaround time is quicker. They get instant response, but also reduces the support calls to the support teams in if they were stuck in a scenario,\u201d Imdadali said.<\/p>\n
The other tool Imdadali is working on automates the process of measuring the dimensions of inventory, appears more likely to be used in its supply chain operations.<\/p>\n
It is for spotting inaccuracies in the dimensions of the thousands of products that retailer sells.<\/p>\n
He said that the inaccuracies can impact \u201cmany parts\u201d of Woolworths\u2019 operations such ranging, selling and deliveries.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe’re still trying to tune it for the AI to identify if a particular, I don’t know a Mars Bar or Snickers \u2026 have the correct dimensions.<\/p>\n
“We’re doing in it a way to give a sense of confidence: low, medium, high.<\/p>\n
\u201c[If it\u2019s] high that it’s incorrect, then that gets flagged, and we’re working out whether we automate that process or whether we set it as a report or workflow, then for the user to then go through and accept the new values or review it and update the values,\u201d Imdadali explained.<\/p>\n