Mr. Alexander Mahr reports

METCASH AND COVEO EXPAND STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIP TO POWER NEXT GENERATION AI-ENABLED EXPERIENCES FOR B2B RETAIL CUSTOMERS

Metcash has expanded its partnership with Coveo Solutions Inc. to bring AI-powered (artificial intelligence) conversational experiences to its B2B (business-to-business) customer communications portal.

Unlike traditional keyword-based search, Coveo's conversational search understands the intent behind every query, empowering customers to resolve everyday issues through self-service. Soon, the same trusted, relevant guidance will also be surfaced directly within the agent experience, helping support teams assist customers more efficiently.

"This announcement builds on our already successful partnership with Coveo. By bringing conversational search to our B2B customer communications platform, AskROSS, we're transforming how we support retailers by providing them with a modern generative AI-powered digital experience. Embedding generative AI directly into our customer communications platform makes it faster and easier for our retailers to find answers, self-serve routine needs and access support when they need it. This represents a significant step forward in delivering a more modern, intelligent and customer-centric experience. Retailers can now ask questions in natural language and receive fast, trusted answers that help them make better decisions. That means less time spent searching for information, more time focused on serving shoppers and a simpler, more intuitive experience overall," said Madeleine Fitzpatrick, general manager retail at Metcash.

The expansion builds on the success of Metcash's existing deployment of Coveo in other areas of the business, including its on-line B2B marketplace, Sorted. Publicis Sapient, an enterprise AI platforms and services company, has worked with Metcash for the past two years, helping define the future retailer experience and the content and service foundations behind it.

"Metcash has a deep commitment to the independent retailers it serves across Australia. We are a proud partner of Metcash on this mission," said Alexander Mahr, managing director, Coveo APAC. "Metcash's continued investment in Coveo reflects a clear focus on equipping its retail network with trusted, generative AI-powered experiences that help teams find information faster, make better decisions and ultimately deliver better service to customers. We're proud to support one of Australia's leading wholesalers as it continues to innovate with AI."

"Our work with Metcash has always been grounded in a simple ambition: make it easier for independent Australian retailers to run and grow their businesses. This next phase with Coveo brings AI into the everyday moments that matter for retailers, helping them find answers faster and get the right support when they need it. There's real potential for AI in B2B, from agentic commerce to AI-powered search, because it turns complex information and systems into practical value," said Cassandra Kelsall, head of advisory at Publicis Sapient Australia.

About Metcash

Metcash is Australia's leading wholesale and service provider to food, liquor, hardware and other independent businesses nationwide. In addition to being an integrated wholesaler and scaled logistics operator, Metcash is a retail banner owner, a large retailer, a franchisor and a retail media owner.

About Publicis Sapient

Publicis Sapient, the global technology hub of Publicis Groupe, provides enterprise AI platforms and services. With over 30 years of digital business transformation experience, it enables enterprise clients to transform how they operate and serve their customers, unlocking new value and enabling them to thrive in an AI-driven world. Its platforms Sapient Slingshot, Sapient Bodhi and Sapient Sustain use AI built off this deep enterprise context to help organizations modernize their legacy tech systems, build agentic solutions and automate their IT operations. The combination of its AI platforms and the expertise of its people enables Publicis Sapient to deliver faster and more effective outcomes through solutions that are specific to the unique needs of its clients' businesses, their industries and their customers.

About Coveo Solutions Inc.

Coveo brings superior AI relevance to every point of experience, transforming how enterprises connect with their customers and employees to maximize business outcomes.

Relevance is about moving from persona to person, the degree to which the enterprise-wide content, products, recommendations and advice presented to a person on-line align easily with their context, needs, preferences, behaviour and intent, setting the competitive experience gold standard. Every person's journey is unique, and only AI can solve the complexity of tailoring experiences across massive, diverse audiences, and large volumes and variety of content and products.

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