How AI Boosts Efficiency & Accuracy in Product Information Management

Enterprise retailers today manage thousands to millions of SKUs across online storefronts, marketplaces, brick-and-mortar stores, social platforms, and apps. Keeping product data accurate, complete, and consistent across these touchpoints with manual workflows is not sustainable as SKU counts and channel complexity grow.

Traditional product information management relies on teams spending countless hours writing product descriptions, extracting attributes, updating specifications, and reconciling data across systems–work that doesn’t scale and slows down launches. Even basic catalog tasks can take days to weeks when done manually, creating bottlenecks in operations.

U.S. retail e-commerce sales reached approximately $308.9 billion in 2024, accounting for about 16.1% of total retail sales—up from 15.3% in 2023—reflecting the rapid expansion of online retail and the corresponding explosion in SKUs and product variations across channels.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

In this article, we’ll review how AI in product information management can help you transform manual catalog work by automating enrichment, boosting data accuracy and consistency, and improving visibility for both traditional search and emerging AI-driven discovery.

What is AI in product information management?

AI-powered product information management uses artificial intelligence to automate the creation, enrichment, organization, and optimization of product data across channels and systems. Instead of relying on manual entries in spreadsheets or isolated systems, AI models can generate structured product content and keep it up to date across multiple touchpoints.

An AI-powered PIM handles high-volume catalog work that traditionally slows teams down, including:

• Generating product descriptions aligned to your brand voice and channel requirements.
• Extracting attributes (size, material, compatibility, specification) from unstructured sources like PDFs or supplier files.
• Optimizing content for search, including traditional SEO and emerging AI-driven discovery.
• Maintaining consistency at scale across marketplaces, storefronts, apps, websites, and in-store systems.

Around 24% of Americans aged 18–39 now use AI platforms to search for products while shopping, and roughly 41% have followed recommendations from AI-generated digital influencers—indicating how product discovery is evolving.

Source: Statista

As AI-driven shopping accelerates the expansion of SKUs, sales channels, and AI-powered discovery, product data must be comprehensive, structured, and machine-readable to remain discoverable and competitive.

Traditionally, PIM systems were designed for a simpler era of commerce. They depend heavily on human input and static workflows that struggle at scale.

Capability	Traditional PIM	AI-powered PIM
Data management	Manual data entry and spreadsheet-based updates	Automated enrichment and content generation
Workflow logic	Rule-based workflows requiring constant upkeep	Intelligent, self-optimizing workflows
Data ingestion	Manual input from structured sources	Intelligent extraction from unstructured data sources
Content creation	Human-written descriptions for every SKU	Continuously optimized, AI-generated product content
Scalability	Limited ability to adapt as catalogs grow	Built to scale across thousands, and even millions of SKUs

With the rise in AI-based searches and shopping, you are no longer just managing product data; you need to orchestrate intelligent systems that can automatically improve data quality, coverage, and performance over time.

Comprehensive tools like fabric’s Product Agent use AI to generate and enrich product information at scale, while keeping brand standards intact and activating clean, consistent data across demand channels.

How AI improves efficiency in product information management

Automated product description generation

• The manual bottleneck: Writing unique, accurate descriptions for thousands of SKUs is a slow, time-consuming process. Your teams may often reuse templates or rush copy-paste, which limits depth, consistency, and discoverability.
• AI-driven generation: AI generates SEO-optimized, brand-aligned descriptions using structured inputs like specifications, categories, and attributes—without starting from a blank page each time.
• Time efficiency: What once required days of copywriting and review can now be completed in minutes, freeing your teams to focus on merchandising strategy instead of repetitive writing tasks.

fabric’s Product Agent uses AI to create descriptions optimized for both customers and AI search engines, while maintaining brand voice and activating content across demand channels.

Intelligent attribute extraction

• Unstructured data chaos: Product data often arrives in PDFs, supplier catalogs, spreadsheets, or emails—formats that require tedious manual parsing to extract usable attributes.
• Automated parsing and structuring: AI models automatically scan unstructured files and identify key attributes such as size, material, compatibility, and technical specifications.
• Efficient data: By eliminating repetitive data entry, AI reduces human error and ensures attributes remain consistent across all SKUs and channels.

AI-powered platforms like fabric NEON extract and structure attributes at scale, creating a clean, standardized product catalog that’s easier to manage and activate everywhere you sell.

Automated content enrichment at scale

• The scaling challenge: As your product catalog grows, ensuring every SKU meets the minimum content standards becomes nearly impossible with manual review alone.
• Continuous enrichment: AI identifies missing attributes, flags thin content, and automatically enriches product records to improve depth and quality.
• Operations impact: Complete product data supports better conversion and reduces customer support questions caused by unclear or missing information.

Automated product enrichment in fabric ensures every SKU meets defined content thresholds—without requiring manual audits or one-off fixes.

Faster time-to-market for new products

• Traditional challenge: Manual data entry and content creation often delay product launches, especially when your teams are adding new categories or suppliers.
• AI acceleration: AI can generate complete, publish-ready product information from basic inputs, allowing your products to go live across multiple channels faster.
• Competitive advantage: Using AI can help you get ahead of competitors constrained by manual workflows—without compromising data quality.

fabric NEON’s composable, API-first platform uses AI to accelerate launches while keeping product data accurate, consistent, and scalable.

How AI improves accuracy in product information management

Consistency across all channels

• The inconsistency gap: When multiple writers and teams manage product content, variations in tone, terminology, and depth creep in—especially across web and marketplaces.
• Rule-based brand alignment: AI applies standardized rules, templates, and brand guidelines to every SKU, ensuring uniform structure and language at scale.
• Consistency: Your shoppers would see the accurate and exact information everywhere they engage with your brand, which builds trust and reduces hesitation during purchase.

fabric NEON ensures that the AI-generated content aligns with your approved voice, terminology, and formatting rules—so accuracy never comes at the cost of brand identity.

Reduced human error in data entry

• Common errors: Typos, incorrect specifications, mismatched attributes, and duplicate entries are common when data is entered or updated manually.
• Automated checks and balances: AI validates product data against predefined rules, detects anomalies, and flags inconsistencies before content is published.
• Reliable outcome: Fewer errors means less rework, fewer customer queries, and reduced support volume tied to incorrect product information.

Real-time data validation and quality checks

• Quality control challenge: Manually reviewing every SKU for completeness and compliance before launch/update.
• Automated validation: AI automatically checks for required attributes, formatting standards, completeness thresholds, and logical accuracy in real time.
• Proactive benefits: Errors are caught before product data reaches storefronts, marketplaces, or AI search agents—reducing returns and post-purchase frictions.

Advanced automation platforms like fabric NEON include built-in data validation layers that prevent incomplete or non-compliant product data from being activated across your channels.

Maintaining accuracy as catalogs scale

• The scaling problem: As SKU counts grow into the tens or hundreds of thousands, manual quality control quickly becomes unmanageable.
• Continuous monitoring: AI continuously evaluates product data using performance signals, customer feedback, and evolving requirements to keep information accurate.
• Compounding quality: Instead of degrading as the catalog expands, data quality improves—creating a stronger foundation for conversion and AI-driven discovery.

Implementing AI in your product information management strategy

Assess your current product data maturity

• Evaluate your catalog health: Review how complete your product records are, how consistent they appear across channels, and how much time your teams spend on manual enrichment.
• Identify bottlenecks: Identify where manual processes are slowing down launches, introducing errors, or creating backlogs—often during onboarding, updates, or category expansion.
• Set benchmarks: Capture current metrics (time-to-publish, completeness scores, error rates) so you can quantify improvement after introducing AI.

Choose AI-powered PIM capabilities that integrate with existing systems

• Prioritize integration: Look for an API-first platform with pre-built integrations to your existing commerce stack, configurable workflows, and controls for your brand voice.
• Avoid disruptive rebuilds: Choose a platform that skips the replatforming process or involves lengthy custom development before delivering value.

fabric NEON layers AI capabilities onto your existing systems, enabling enrichment and activation without disrupting your ongoing operations. 

Define brand guidelines for AI-generated content

• Codify your brand standards: Document tone, terminologies, minimum detail thresholds, and phrases to avoid so AI knows how your product should sound everywhere.
• Lead with examples: Provide strong on-brand samples to guide AI outputs for different product categories and channels.

fabric’s brand control features ensure AI-generated content consistently reflects your approved voice across all SKUs and destinations.

Start with high-impact, high-volume use cases

• Prioritize big wins: Focus on products with thin content, new launches, or categories where manual improvement efforts can create delays.
• Pilot before scaling: Roll out AI enrichment on selective categories to assess and validate quality, performance, and operational fit.
• Measure impact: Track time savings, content completeness, and conversion improvements to understand the benefits.

Monitor, measure, and optimize continuously

• Track KPIs: Monitor generation time, data completeness scores, search visibility, and conversion rates to understand efficiency and impact.
• Quality checks: Regularly sample AI outputs to confirm accuracy and brand alignment as catalogs evolve.

Platforms like fabric NEON provide analytics into AI-generated content performance, helping your teams refine rules and optimize outcomes over time.

AI-powered product data is the foundation for success

AI can transform product information management from a manual, error-prone process into an automated system that scales efficiently while improving accuracy and consistency.

By switching to AI-driven enrichment, you can launch products faster, maintain higher data quality, and stay prepared for AI-driven discovery and shopping experiences.

As e-commerce is increasingly becoming AI-driven and agentic, AI-optimized product data is critical for visibility, trust, and competitiveness across all channels.

Contact us today to explore our Product Agent or request a thorough AI Search Assessment to see how AI-powered enrichment can transform your retail operations.

---