Japan’s Fujitsu has introduced Uvance for Retail, a cloud-based data and AI platform.
It is intended to unify fragmented retail data and operations and support decision-making across the country’s retail sector.
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The system aggregates operational and customer information within a cloud environment and incorporates technologies such as agentic AI.
According to Fujitsu, the platform is designed to enhance both shop-floor execution and management decisions by linking data across retail locations and systems that are currently separated among retailers, manufacturers and wholesalers.
The company said Japan’s retail industry is under structural strain from demographic decline, labour shortages, escalating costs and intensifying competition, while large volumes of information remain scattered across disparate systems.
Fujitsu added that these conditions constrain effective data use and weaken operational responsiveness and competitiveness, and that it has broadened its capabilities by including GK Software and BrainPad within its group.
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By GlobalDataUvance for Retail brings together this sector expertise with AI and consulting services to design business processes and core systems and deploy AI-driven operational tools.
Among the platform’s components is causal inference AI, which aims to identify factors shaping customer behaviour and enabling more personalised engagement.
It also features a multi-AI agent framework intended to support cross-functional decision-making.
In demonstrations, Fujitsu’s AI agent “Watomo” analyses store and operational data, flags issues for merchandisers and models responses to operational scenarios.
Fujitsu said Uvance for Retail is intended to improve customer and employee experiences, reinforce supply chains and support sustainable growth in Japan’s retail sector.
In July 2025, Canadian grocery retailer Metro adopted Fujitsu’s active process monitoring system to strengthen operations across its Metro, Super C and Food Basics store network.
Using Fujitsu’s operational and management technology, the cloud-based platform was designed to provide continuous monitoring of store transactions and immediate visibility into potential issues such as theft, fraud and operational inefficiencies.
