Birdzi has released AskKea, a generative business intelligence (BI) assistant that lets grocery retailers query their own data using plain-English questions and receive decision-ready answers in minutes. In early deployments, the tool reduced decision cycles from one to two days down to as little as one to three minutes.
AskKea is designed for non-analysts. Store managers and marketing teams can ask questions directly and receive clear answers, visual summaries, exportable data files, methodology explanations and recommended next steps — without waiting on a data team or manually reconciling reports across multiple systems.
Shekar Raman, co-founder and CEO of Birdzi, said the core challenge isn’t a lack of data – it’s the gap between raw data and usable insight.
“Retailers are drowning in data but starving for usable insight. About 80 percent of enterprise data is unstructured, and knowledge workers spend nearly a fifth of their time searching for and assembling information. AskKea eliminates the need to stitch together reports and dashboards by giving leaders direct access to the answers in their data so that decisions can happen in minutes instead of days,” Raman said.
Beyond standard performance reporting, AskKea supports deeper analysis including year-over-year category penetration, SKU rationalization, customer lifecycle transitions and scenario-based forecasting.
Early User Feedback
Jason W. Sokol, VP of marketing at Associated Food Stores (AFS), said the tool has practical implications well beyond reporting.
“I have been experimenting with AskKea recently and it is an absolute game changer for retailers. Not only will they be able to better understand their sales and rewards data, with AskKea they can make the data highly actionable,” Sokol said.
Mary Jo Ziemkowski, grocery retail digital rewards program analyst at Strack and Van Til, said the tool delivered value on her first use and surfaced a second layer of insight she hadn’t anticipated.
“I needed a list of customers who purchased specific items within certain dates. The first downloadable file was immediately useful. AskKea then offered a second, more detailed report, which added even more value. I was impressed by its capabilities and look forward to exploring more ways to leverage this tool for insights and support,” Ziemkowski said.
To schedule a demo, visit birdzi.com.
[RELATED: Birdzi Debuts Shopper Engagement Solution, Journey]