fabric AI Order Cloud: Built for AI-Powered Commerce, Today and Tomorrow

Today’s enterprise retailers face unprecedented opportunities and challenges to transform their customer experience and brand engagement. From managing complex omnichannel fulfillment to meeting ever-increasing customer expectations for fast, flexible delivery, the traditional approach to order management is reaching its limitations. 

Retailers are grappling with more and more each day, including:

• Increasingly complex supply chains spanning multiple warehouses, stores, and demand and fulfillment channels
• Rising customer expectations for same-day delivery and real-time order updates
• The need to optimize inventory across channels while minimizing costs
• Competition from digital-native retailers with advanced fulfillment capabilities
• A lack of instant error handling and exception management 

This is where AI agents enter the picture. Unlike traditional rule-based systems, AI agents can continuously learn and adapt to changing conditions, making real-time decisions that optimize for multiple factors simultaneously. For retailers aiming to provide a best-in-class customer experience while maintaining operational efficiency, AI agents represent not just an advantage but a necessity for staying competitive.

But, AI agents are becoming far more than just chatbots. And, what AI is capable of is moving faster than any technology ever has.

This rapid advancement of AI has created a paradigm shift in retail technology that few saw coming. Even sophisticated retailers that were in the midst of traditional digital transformation efforts—focused primarily on cost reduction and modernization—now face a more fundamental challenge: preparing their systems for AI infusion. However, with the right approach, creating a foundation for AI-infused retail can be manageable and strategic rather than overwhelming.

Understanding the foundational elements required for AI readiness is the first crucial step in preparing your organization for this technological evolution. Let’s examine the essential building blocks that will enable your systems to support and thrive in an AI-powered future.

Building the foundation for AI-powered commerce with fabric

We’re seeing plenty of technology vendors over-promising and under-delivering as they paste “AI” on their website and marketing messages. AI is in Gartner’s “peak of inflated expectations,” so that kind of hype is, well, at the peak of its inflated expectations.

Rather than get sucked into that hype, a better approach is to build tools that can quickly and easily leverage incoming AI innovations as they arrive and as they fit your business needs. 

For example, you don’t want generative AI automatically writing and publishing product descriptions quite yet. However, the technology can currently produce an amazing first draft that your human merchandisers can tweak, edit, and publish in much less time than doing it manually. With an AI-ready platform, you can pull in new innovations when the time is right for you.

To support that approach, fabric AI Order Cloud was architected from the ground up with AI infusion and orchestration in mind. Our platform’s order and inventory APIs provide the essential foundation needed for AI agents to optimize and automate complex order management workflows. Here’s what makes it so innovative.

Deep API integration 

Unlike traditional monolithic systems, fabric’s API-first approach enables seamless integration of AI agents at every level of order processing. The platform exposes granular endpoints for order creation, modification, fulfillment, and inventory management. Each API is thoroughly documented and follows RESTful principles, making it simple for AI agents to interact with order and inventory data in real-time.

For example, when an order is placed, AI agents can instantly access comprehensive order details through the Order API, including line items, fulfillment preferences, and customer history. This granular access allows agents to make intelligent routing decisions based on the full context of each order.

Event-driven architecture 

fabric’s platform implements an event-driven architecture that’s crucial for AI agent operations. Every significant state change—from inventory updates to order status changes—generates events that AI agents can subscribe to and act upon immediately. This real-time event stream enables agents to maintain an accurate view of the entire order ecosystem and respond rapidly to changing conditions.

Data consistency and quality 

fabric’s platform maintains strict data consistency across all APIs, ensuring AI agents always work with reliable, up-to-date information. Inventory levels, order statuses, and fulfillment capacities are synchronized in real-time across all channels and locations. This consistency is crucial for AI agents to make accurate decisions about order routing and inventory allocation.

Flexible business rules engine 

fabric’s fulfillment rules engine was designed specifically to support AI-driven decision-making. Rules can be defined, modified, and overridden through APIs, allowing AI agents to adjust business logic dynamically based on learned patterns and changing conditions. This flexibility enables sophisticated optimization strategies that are impossible with traditional static rule sets.

Performance at scale

fabric’s infrastructure is built to handle the additional processing demands of AI agents without compromising performance. Our APIs are designed for high throughput and low latency, ensuring that AI agents can process thousands of decisions per second while maintaining response times under 100ms.

Comprehensive monitoring and logging 

Every API interaction and state change is logged with detailed context, providing AI agents with rich historical data for learning and optimization. The platform’s monitoring capabilities allow organizations to track AI performance and maintain transparency in automated decision-making processes.

Security and access control 

fabric implements fine-grained access controls and robust security measures that govern AI agent operations. Organizations can precisely control which actions AI agents can take, ensuring safe and compliant automation while maintaining human oversight where needed.

Future-ready architecture 

Perhaps most importantly, fabric’s platform is designed to evolve alongside advancing AI capabilities. The API contracts are versioned and extensible, allowing organizations to gradually increase the sophistication of their AI integration over time without disrupting existing operations.

Why this matters

For retailers looking to leverage AI in their operations, fabric AI Order Cloud provides more than just the basic requirements; it offers a foundation for innovation. The platform’s architecture ensures that retailers can implement current AI capabilities and adapt to future advances in AI technology.

The combination of robust data infrastructure, modern architecture, and advanced features makes fabric AI Order Cloud an ideal platform for businesses looking to embrace AI-driven commerce. Whether you’re implementing basic automation or building sophisticated AI agents, fabric’s platform provides the necessary foundation and flexibility to support your journey.

Regardless of your AI maturity, it’s clear that AI-driven tools and solutions are here to stay. Retailers that begin building a foundation for AI today will be far ahead of those that delay, deliberate, and defer. What they’ll be missing is the ability to quickly implement tomorrow’s AI innovations, and that will put them further behind those that become AI-enabled today.

Making the transition today

The shift toward AI-powered commerce isn’t just about technology; it’s about creating sustainable competitive advantages in an increasingly complex retail landscape. By building on the fabric AI Order Cloud platform, retailers can begin their AI journey with confidence, knowing their foundation is solid and scalable.

The key to success lies in taking an incremental approach. Start by ensuring your basic data infrastructure and APIs are in place, then gradually introduce AI capabilities as your organization’s needs evolve. fabric’s platform enables this stepped approach, allowing you to maintain operational stability while progressively advancing your AI capabilities.

Remember that the goal isn’t just to implement AI for its own sake but to create tangible improvements in customer experience, operational efficiency, and business agility. With fabric AI Order Cloud as your foundation, you’re not just preparing for the future of retail—you’re positioning your organization to help shape it.

Whether you’re just beginning to explore AI possibilities or ready to implement sophisticated AI agents, the time to start building your foundation is now. The future of retail belongs to those who can successfully merge human insight with AI capabilities, and fabric AI Order Cloud provides the robust, flexible foundation needed to make that future a reality.

To get a look at fabric AI Order Cloud, schedule a personalized demo today.

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