Can AI Fix Product Data?

Welcome to the first episode of PIMCast – the podcast that explores the challenges, opportunities, and innovations in product information management (PIM).

In this episode, Ben Adams, CEO & Founder of Start with Data, sits down with Daniel Stewart-Dexter, VP of Operations at RS Group, to discuss the role of AI in managing and enriching product data. 

AI has been one of the biggest buzzwords in tech, but how much of it is real innovation, and how much is just hype?

Daniel brings deep expertise in product data operations, having worked in both retail and industrial distribution. He shares how RS Group, a leader in the electrical and industrial distribution space, is navigating the complexity of millions of SKUs, supplier data, and AI-driven content automation.

🔹 Key Discussion Points:
✅ (03:37) Has product data really changed in the last 10-15 years?
✅ (07:13) Managing over 800,000 stocked products and millions of non-stocked SKUs – the RS Group challenge
✅ (10:41) Why AI is essential but not a magic fix for product data
✅ (13:08) Cutting through the AI hype: What’s actually useful for PIM?
✅ (17:29) AI’s biggest weakness: Confidently delivering wrong answers
✅ (19:12) How RS Group controls AI usage internally
✅ (24:05) The future of AI-powered procurement – AI buying from AI?
✅ (26:37) The biggest blocker to AI success in product data – lack of a universal identifier
✅ (30:33) The problem with search engines today and how AI might solve it
✅ (32:44) Advice for distributors and retailers: How to approach AI for PIM without the snake oil

💡 Key Takeaways:
🚀 AI is not an instant solution, but it enhances human expertise in product data.
📊 AI can help extract key attributes from supplier data, but human verification is still essential.
🔍 There is no single identifier for products globally, making AI’s job even harder.
🤖 In the future, AI might not just enrich product data – it could also be the buyer!

🎧 Listen now and learn how RS Group is using AI to tackle the complexity of product data while avoiding the common pitfalls.