Coca-Cola uses AI to improve retailer ordering in Malaysia
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Coca-Cola is using artificial intelligence in Malaysia to suggest what products and quantities retailers should order through its Coke Buddy self-ordering platform. The feature, called Perfect Basket, draws on a Central Recommendation Engine that analyzes past orders, ordering frequency, seasonality, weather, and purchasing patterns of similar businesses. Coke Buddy supports roughly 39,000 retail outlets in Malaysia, and Perfect Basket offers recommendations before an order is completed while leaving the final decision with the retailer. Coca-Cola reported that during a January-to-April 2026 campaign, more than 4,000 retailers participated and 83% of them adopted Perfect Basket recommendations, with participating outlets seeing higher sales revenue growth than comparable stores, although no detailed performance metrics were disclosed. Similar AI-enabled ordering capabilities have been deployed elsewhere, including reaching over three million outlets in Latin America and earlier pilots where retailers were over 30% more likely to purchase recommended SKUs. A separate demand-prediction pilot combining sales, weather, and geolocation data saw sales 7% to 8% higher than non-AI outlets. Coca-Cola says it will keep developing Coke Buddy and Perfect Basket using retailer feedback and data.
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