The Otto Group now has its own chat GPT. The chatbot is called ogGPT, “og” stands for Otto Group. 10,000 employees can currently use the software, says CEO Alexander Birken. The aim is to reach all of the approximately 40,000 employees. “We’re doing this because we want everyone in our group to think about what opportunities lie there. And there are many of them.”
Birken is currently primarily concerned with “GenAI”, or generative AI, a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content and ideas such as conversations, stories, images, videos and music. “With generative artificial intelligence, we are at the beginning of something that will change the economy and society as dramatically as the use of electricity recently did,” says Birken in an interview with South German newspaper. “I think it’s going to be huge.” He believes AI will fundamentally transform retail, from marketing to shopping behavior to product manufacturing.
The drugstore chain dm was the first large German retailer to develop an internal, data protection-compliant tool with generative AI in the summer that is aimed at all employees. At dm and Otto, GenAI is based on Open AI’s chat GPT technology and Microsoft’s Azure Open AI Service. But they are open to other providers. In order to maintain control over your own company data, the software is hosted in your own IT infrastructure. The first version of ogGPT is said to have been created within two weeks, created by four people.
“Embrace the topic of AI”
The chat function is intended to serve as an aid to employees at work. They can upload documents and knowledge databases and ideally find answers to questions more quickly. To do this, they can interact with the AI assistant and ask it specific questions and also train it.
The drugstore chain dm feeds the information from the intranet into dmGPT. Further data, such as from dm’s internal SAP systems, receipt and customer data, consumer inquiries to the service center or trends from social media, will be added. Managing director Roman Melcher says: “The advantages of working with dmGPT are clearly increased efficiency and increased productivity.” Employees in the 13 foreign headquarters currently have access to the system. The branches then follow.
Not to be forgotten in this context: The Schwarz Group (Lidl, Kaufland) is currently building an AI campus near Neckarsulm and is transforming itself into a technology group.
Criticism of China’s use of AI
This corresponds pretty well to Birken’s desire for more initiative. “We as Germans in particular, with our skepticism about the future, have to embrace the topic of AI,” he says. “We need open curiosity and inquisitiveness and must develop our own AI infrastructure in Europe with the values that we represent.” The sentence refers particularly to China. The country does not represent democratic values. Chinese trading companies such as Shein and Temu are accused of misusing AI. They are said to mass copy, reproduce and sell designs of products in other countries. This is currently being resolved in court in the USA.
Birken naturally rejects this type of AI pirated copy. However, he also thinks that there is too much “China bashing” going on in Germany. “We have to move away from this style of viewing Chinese competitors in such a negative way across the board,” he says. “Some providers are simply smarter and faster than us in some areas.”
However, someone who has lived in China since the late 1980s, Jörg Wuttke, BASF manager and President of the EU Chamber of Commerce in the People’s Republic, says: “I would say that the Chinese should stop bashing Europe first.” The critical perspective in China’s media is clearly set by the government. Wuttke calls for more self-confidence in Germany. China is dependent on consumers in Europe. “Millions of jobs are being created in China by European consumers,” he says.
Jana Oertel, China specialist at the European Council on Foreign Relations, even advocates emphasizing their own importance more: “The fact that the Chinese cannot get their own economy under control and consume means that more products flood into our markets.” This put local producers and retailers like Otto under pressure. “We have to say that we cannot tolerate this,” says Oertel.