Retail Insight adds AI-driven waste & safety tools for grocers

Retail Insight has announced the expansion of its WasteInsight platform with the introduction of several new AI-powered features for grocery retailers.

The enhanced WasteInsight platform now incorporates Stock Exit Management, Intelligent Donation Enablement, and Food Safety Warnings, adding to its previous capabilities in expiration date management, Prompted Markdowns, and Dynamic Markdowns. The enhancements are designed to help grocers address the challenges of food waste reduction and inventory management.

AI-powered oversight

The WasteInsight platform aims to assist food retailers in managing expiring inventory, efficiently clearing delisted products, and maintaining compliance with food safety regulations. With global food waste estimated at roughly one-third of total production, these features seek to support grocers in optimising their operations while addressing increasing regulatory and consumer expectations.

Alex Considine Tong, Chief Product Officer at Retail Insight, commented on the strategic importance of food waste management for UK supermarkets:

"Food waste has moved from a backroom operational headache to a boardroom-level priority for U.K. grocers. With razor-thin margins and heightened consumer scrutiny, retailers can no longer afford to treat waste as a mere line-item expense."

"Our expanded WasteInsight platform turns this challenge into an opportunity.We're equipping our customers with not just better visibility, but enhanced AI-driven foresight to act before stock becomes a problem. That's a game-changer for retailers and a big step toward reducing both waste and risk."

Stock Exit Management

Stock Exit Management introduces a data-driven approach to optimising discounts on products approaching the end of their lifecycle. The platform's AI engine continually updates markdown strategies for seasonal, delisted, and overstocked items. By evaluating historical sales and local demand trends, the system determines the best timing and discount level to preserve profit margins while clearing inventory efficiently.

Intelligent Donation Enablement

This new feature is designed to make store-level donation workflows more streamlined and standardised. Leveraging existing predictive modelling, the system identifies excess stock unlikely to sell, down to the individual store-item-date. Once a product has been marked down and remains unsold, staff can use the app to scan the item and check against retailer-defined eligibility criteria. If approved, associates can print donation labels and prepare the product for collection.

The process generates structured data feeds of donation-eligible items, allowing direct connection with donation partners or easy integration with existing platforms. As items are donated or disposed of, the system synchronises inventory in real time, reducing manual reconciliation and streamlining compliance efforts.

Retail Insight indicated plans for further enhancements, including predictive donations. This will enable the platform to recommend donations over markdowns when it identifies that surplus stock is unlikely to sell, thereby reducing waste and simplifying operational processes.

Dynamic markdowns and food safety

The upgrades also introduce a combined functionality for Dynamic and Prompted Markdowns with Food Safety Warnings. The system automatically tracks expiration dates and alerts staff as inventory nears expiry. In addition, it checks for anomalies when expiry dates are entered, helping prevent data errors and minimising the risk of unsafe products being sold.

Markdown timings and pricing are dynamically optimised based on real-time data, demand, sell-through rates, and expiration profiles. Store teams are directed to take action at specific locations, increasing efficiency and reducing the time required to identify and process expiring items.

Operational impacts

Retail Insight stated that the platform's suite of tools covers all expiring inventory types, including delisted lines, and supports compliance with food safety legislation. By addressing both strategic planning and daily store execution, retailers can lower operational expenses, improve brand visibility, and satisfy regulatory criteria related to waste management and product safety.

The company outlined several measurable business outcomes for grocery retailers using the platform, such as higher sell-through rates, fewer unsold goods, decreased disposal costs, and more robust food safety practices. The platform is also positioned to help enhance labour productivity and contribute to sustainability goals, which are increasingly influential in today's grocery sector.