It’s clear that we’re on the brink of another upheaval—this time led by artificial intelligence. Dubbed the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ AI is already reshaping industries with tools like voice assistants and data-driven decision-making. Its potential feels limitless, hinting at a future rich with innovation. But here’s the catch: how many businesses are actually reaping the benefits of AI? According to Forbes, only 5.4% of companies are leveraging it effectively. The real challenge lies not just in adopting AI but in identifying use cases that deliver meaningful results. Joe Peers, our Senior Head of eCommerce, states, “In the race to adopt AI, it’s easy to get caught up in the hype. But businesses shouldn't implement AI just to check a box. The real value lies in identifying impactful use cases that solve specific challenges or unlock new opportunities. Whether it's improving customer experiences, optimising operations, or driving innovation, AI should be a tool for strategic transformation—not a trend to follow. Start with the problem, not the technology, and let the use case guide your AI journey.” At Dee Set, our mission is clear: leverage AI to enhance human work, drive real outcomes, and make every minute count. This has been central to our 2024 strategy, delivering stellar results for our clients. By doubling down on innovation, we’re poised to redefine excellence and efficiency across industries. Exploring How AI Can Maximise Productivity and Purpose in Every Role With a robust team of 3,500+ colleagues, Dee Set thrives by prioritising people. We ensure every individual shines by amplifying their strengths while fostering personal growth. Time is valuable, and our focus is on high-impact tasks that bring purpose and productivity to every role. Fast-paced industries like retail pose unique productivity challenges. In 2024, explosive demand for point-of-sales (POS) materials tested our limits. To meet this challenge, we emphasised training and coaching while leveraging AI to streamline operations and deliver unparalleled results. Addressing the Business Challenge: How AI Helped Us Scale Faced with growing demand for POS merchandising, we needed a solution to maintain quality, gather actionable data, and scale operations. Our traditional QA methods consumed 12 hours weekly per retailer, most of which was spent on redundant checks. Enter AI. By adopting a tailored QA solution, we automated repetitive tasks and empowered our teams to focus on strategic decisions. Our AI analyses images submitted via the Reapp Perform app, comparing them against reference setups to ensure compliance. The impact? QC time slashed from 12 hours to 3, with 75% of images requiring no human review. This breakthrough enables our QA team to focus on tasks that add value. Built by Senior Data Scientist Dr. Zhanna Mileeva using Microsoft Azure, this end-to-end solution has revolutionised our operations. Zhanna states: “The advantage of implementing this AI solution to streamline our operations is remarkable. By equipping our colleagues with the right tool, we have enabled them to effectively do 4 times more than they could do before. It also unlocked a proactive response to any emerging challenges while the job is still live, thus, contributing to a strong culture and excellent service of unparalleled quality. From a business perspective this is a perfect example of human and machine collaboration with tangible results internally as well as for our clients. So, it is a win-win for everyone”. Zhanna continues: “We have adhered to the best practices and ensured utilisation of the latest technological advancements on Azure platform by staying in close contact with Microsoft. The development of a POC project was rapid. Low cost, reliability and quick deployment make this solution a gate opener for new business opportunities. Following the evaluation of its success we are now trialling a scaled up version. With aims to increase the processing capacity exponentially, we’re keen to see what the future holds for this clever piece of tech!”. The Results: AI as a Game Changer in Quality Assurance AI has transformed our QA processes, enabling our team to focus on personalised coaching, top-performer recognition, and operational excellence. By seamlessly integrating human intelligence and cutting-edge AI, we’ve scaled operations while cutting costs—a win-win for Dee Set and our clients. In Conclusion: Beyond the Hype, AI Delivers Value Where It Matters We expect that the hype around AI will continue for a while. Whilst many businesses will be excited about the ‘newness’ of this technology, here at Dee Set we’re focused on how we can utilise it when it comes to making it work in practical, meaningful ways that can benefit our employees. The business challenge we faced with scaling POS operations wasn’t solved by just adopting AI—it was about finding the right AI solution and ecosystem architecture to support our teams and enhance the quality of work we deliver to our clients. As businesses explore the potential of AI, the key is to cut through the noise and focus on solutions that truly drive value, improve productivity, and empower people. For us, the journey has just begun—and we’re excited about where AI will take us next. Want to get involved with our powerful AI tech? Just get in touch and we’ll show you how it’s done!
