Otto Group launches AI tool for in-house employees

"The potential of AI is enormous, and we are currently only scratching the surface. No other technology will be as disruptive as AI in the coming years,“ said Sebastian Klauke, Otto Group Executive Board Member for E-Commerce, Technology, Business Intelligence, and Corporate Ventures. The Otto Group has developed its own in-house AI language model called ogGPT and made it available to around 26,000 employees in German-speaking countries in late September. More than 4,200 employees used the chatbot in the first week alone. The company controls the chats and data is not used for training the underlying AI models. Apart from the chat function, employees can upload documents or entire knowledge bases and interact with them via ogGPT and query the content. The service then extracts the relevant passages and answers the questions in multiple languages, if required.

The internal Discover-AI community assists employees with generative artificial intelligence (AI). A support unit offers assistance and online training tailored to the needs of various AI user groups including technical experts and beginners. Employees also have access to video-based learning on e.g., digital transformation and AI through the Otto Group Learning Experience Hub. "This is just the beginning. We will continuously develop applications like ogGPT to offer even more exciting possibilities for all colleagues," said Alexander Birken, CEO of the Otto Group. The company intends to explore new ways of using generative AI to learn how such technological possibilities can enhance online retail and the customer experience with them, he added.

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