A new era of business
The founders of software company Sparkbox were early converts to the potential of AI—for the retail industry and for all kinds of businesses.
In 2018, Lindsay Fisher, Matt Wong and Kevin Blackmore created Sparkbox, which is now trusted by global brands including New Balance and River Island. However, Wong’s journey in the industry began in 2015. As a retail consultant, he worked on pricing, inventory management and stock distribution projects. As his work evolved into a more technical role, he realized that the methods used to create demand forecasts and develop trend forecasts were quite primitive, and wondered how technology could improve these processes.
In launching Sparkbox, with AI still an emerging technology, Wong and his colleagues saw a unique opportunity to help retail teams boost their planning processes. However, it would take several more years before AI became an integral part of Sparkbox’s operations.
Galaxy AI is making it possible for Wong to use AI every day
The launch of Galaxy AI has accelerated the transition to using AI in Wong’s normal workday. “Considering how Sparkbox specializes in machine learning and AI solutions for our customers, it’s surprising that it took us a while to adopt AI internally,” said Wong. “When we started Sparkbox, we mainly used machine learning for our customers, but barely used AI internally as it was still relatively niche. After becoming more familiar with Galaxy AI, I realized how my Galaxy Z Fold device could help to manage my daily schedule and my work schedule as well.”
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For Wong, AI helps him overcome some of the operational challenges presented by running a small team with big ambitions.
“We’re constantly refining our product offering, so we have to have a lot of meetings with staff, partners and customers,” he said. “This was usually a huge pain point because it took me a long time to get minutes before collating notes to distribute. Now, I can be more productive, especially when it comes to transcribing and summarizing meetings, by use “Transcript Assist”.1“
Transcript Assist helps the Sparkbox team organize and coordinate even better, capturing “every action point automatically and in real time,” Wong said.
From software to hardware, Samsung devices are the perfect fit for busy entrepreneurs
Wong serves as Sparkbox’s CTO, which means he has to stay current on new research and technology offerings. Browsing help1 is a tremendous time saver for this aspect of his role.
“Browsing assistance is great for giving me a clear summary in a few simple points. Now I don’t have to waste time browsing thousands of web pages; I get all the information I need in less than a paragraph,” Wong said. . When he’s researching new programming libraries or frameworks for the team to adopt, the overview provided by Navigation Help helps Wong understand whether it’s worth his time to keep reading further.
Like many small business founders, Wong alternates between working remotely and commuting to the office – in his case, that means splitting his time between Southampton and London. While he usually works from his computer, he found the Galaxy Z Fold’s three-way multi-window display perfect for getting work done when he’s out and about.
“At first I didn’t expect to use the multi-window functionality much, but it’s very useful to have three windows open at the same time so I can multitask without constantly switching between apps,” said Wong.
AI technology has really optimized my daily life
The Fold’s taskbar holds up to eight apps at once, keeping four of your most recently used apps active so you can effortlessly switch between the ones you use the most.
“There are a lot of tasks that I now don’t have to do on the computer because I can easily do them on the Fold. For example, if I’m down in the office and a colleague asks me a question, I don’t have to go back upstairs top on my computer to find the answer in one of our databases The screen is big enough for me to do smaller tasks and I can even copy content from one side of the screen to the other which is amazing . . . Wong is also a big fan of the S Pen2 to make quick notes and easily drag and drop content across phone windows.
“Crucial” technology for businesses
From implementing AI solutions for their retail clients to adopting Galaxy AI in-house at Sparkbox, Wong champions AI and its ability to transform the way we work.
“AI technology has really optimized my daily life,” Wong said, “helping me do heavy tasks that I don’t want to do, don’t have time to do, or aren’t skilled enough to do done. Besides, HE usually does these tasks better than I can anyway!”
Wong champions greater adoption of AI in the retail sector and eventually expects to see entire systems built and run on AI.
“Where we are now, I think AI is a necessity; it’s almost existential at this point. Sparkbox saw the early potential of AI, and as a founder, Galaxy AI continues to prove to me how crucial technology is to improving business operations.”
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This post was created by Insider Studios with Samsung.
1 Samsung account login required. Requires network connection.
2 S Pen sold separately.