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Arun Kumar on Why Smaller, Smarter AI Models Are Giving Retailers an Edge

 Retail TouchPoints published an executive viewpoint by Arun Kumar, Global Head of Product and Industry Practice at Altimetrik, titled“Why Smaller, Smarter AI Models Are Giving Retailers an Edge.”

 In the article, Arun explains why general-purpose large language models (LLMs) often fall short in retail and CPG environments that depend on structured data, pricing logic, and operational accuracy. He makes the case for domain-specific small language models (SLMs) trained on a retailer’s own catalogs, product hierarchies, policies, and loyalty data as a more reliable foundation for agentic AI.

 Arun outlines practical retail use cases across marketing, ecommerce, customer support, and in-store operations, showing how smaller, purpose-built models reduce hallucinations, improve decision accuracy, and deliver measurable ROI. He emphasizes that competitive advantage in retail AI won’t come from bigger models, but from models trained to think exactly like the business operates.

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