Grocery group Ahold Delhaize is set to launch automated warehouses to speed up completion of orders and slash delivery times.
Reuters reported that the world’s eighth biggest food retailer is partnering with startup Takeoff, which will enable it to automate order collection at mini “robot supermarkets” attached to U.S. chains like Stop & Shop.
Takeoff develops small warehouses that save space by stacking groceries to the ceiling, and use robot arms to put together shoppers’ orders. The warehouses can be used as small supermarkets that can supply several stores, and cost about $3 million to build – less than the cost of a typical store revamp, according to Takeoff.
“Ahold is preparing for a major push,” said Curt Avallone, Takeoff’s chief development officer. “If it goes well, both from their side and our side, the hope is we would rapidly be able to build quite a few.”
Ahold Chief Executive Frans Muller also confirmed the deal, explaining that it will help expand the company’s digital business for less cash.
“With the robotized solution, we can optimize those picking costs and be closer with micro fulfillment to our catchment areas. We also reduce the cost of the last mile,” he said.
Ahold’s shares soared 5 percent on Wednesday as it reported third-quarter results that beat analysts’ forecasts. Opening the automated warehouses is another way for the grocer to compete with Whole Foods, which was bought by Amazon last year. Soon after, Whole Foods launched same-day grocery delivery with Amazon’s Prime Now in more than 60 cities. Ahold Delhaize acquired Chicago-based online grocer Peapod in 2000, and while it’s still a market leader, growth has slowed due to heightened competition.
Delhaize, the current owner of Food Lion (among other grocery chains), and Ahold, current owner of Stop & Shop, completed their $29 billion merger in 2016. Delhaize is based in Belgium and Ahold is based in the Netherlands.
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has formed an artificial intelligence (AI)-centric health partnership with General Catalyst.
AWS says the collaboration, announced Monday (Jan. 13), combines its tech expertise with General Catalyst’s history of healthcare investments.
“AWS and General Catalyst believe that AI has immense potential to [effect] meaningful change in global health care,” AWS CEO Matt Garman said in a news release. “Together, we are taking bold steps to improve patient outcomes and make quality care more accessible to all by embedding AI throughout the care journey.”
According to the release, the partnership will focus on building and deploying AI-powered solutions to address crucial needs in predictive and personalized care, interoperability, operational and clinical efficiency, diagnostics and patient engagement.
The potential here is “vast,” the companies said, with plans to employ the power of generative AI using Amazon Bedrock and team with providers like Anthropic and Mistral AI as well as securely trained health care-specific models.
“One example is the ability to drive more personalized health care by using disease-specific models that process diverse health data—such as radiology and pathology scans, genomic sequencing information, clinical trial data, and electronic health records—to help doctors and researchers identify patterns and diagnose, make predictions about treatment outcomes, offer insights into disease progression, and more,” the release said.
Writing Monday about the intersection between generative AI (GenAI) and healthcare, PYMNTS CEO Karen Webster posited a world in which “your doctor knows you’re getting sick before you do” and healthcare is more of a “proactive partnership” than a thing to worry about.
“GenAI has the potential to shift the conversation — and time and dollars spent — from how much it costs to make people well when they get sick to preventing illness before it even begins,” Webster wrote. “That will make the future of healthcare about using GenAI to better understand and prevent disease. Interactions with the patient will become patient-first and smart-technology driven.”
The economics, that report adds, are “compelling,” as U.S. healthcare costs — which came to nearly $5 trillion in 2023 — are projected to reach $7.7 trillion by 2032. Many consumers, especially younger ones, say they’ll skip or delay medical care because they can’t afford it.
“That’s not just expensive — it’s unsustainable,” Webster wrote.
“By using intelligent monitoring devices and personalized health insights, it’s possible to dramatically reduce the cost of chronic disease management. Medication can be remotely prescribed, administered and monitored as appropriate, staving off a full-blown, expensive and potentially physically debilitating medical crisis.”