Industries
AI for supermarkets that answers every store's phone, holds stock and calls suppliers
Lumate, from lumate.io, is an AI assistant for supermarkets and grocery chains. It answers a store's phone, checks the stock in the app it builds for you, holds an item for the caller, and when a store runs low it phones the supplier you name to place the order, then puts the delivery on a map.
The film
Daybrook Market is an invented chain of twelve London stores. Ruth, its owner, asks Lumate for an app. A customer calls the Camden store, and later Ruth asks Lumate to order milk.
What happens in the film
- 01
Builds the stock app 0:04
Ruth asks for an app, and Lumate builds it for the twelve stores.
- 02
Answers the store's phone 0:13
A customer calls and asks whether the five-litre olive oil on offer is in at Camden. Lumate says it is, three in stock at 24 pounds.
- 03
Holds a bottle 0:35
She asks Lumate to hold one for before seven tonight. Lumate sets it up and confirms: one bottle is held for Grace Holt at Camden.
- 04
Notices the milk is low 0:48
Camden is low on milk, so Ruth asks Lumate to order more.
- 05
Calls the dairy 0:50
Lumate calls Hannah at the dairy, says it is Ruth's AI assistant and that the call is recorded, and asks for 120 litres of whole milk for tomorrow at 7 a.m. Hannah agrees to put it on the first van.
- 06
Shows the delivery 1:19
Lumate writes the order down, and the delivery appears on the map.
What Lumate does here
Stock answers come from your own app
Callers hear only the fields you mark as ones callers may hear. In the film Lumate reads the olive oil's stock and price from the app it built for Daybrook.
In the docs: Chats, tasks and apps, Calls and voice
A hold is a row in your app
A collection can be marked so callers may add a row; the docs give a shop's holds as an example. Lumate says the details back, uses the caller's own number, and the app's automations run on the new row, for instance a confirmation on WhatsApp.
In the docs: Chats, tasks and apps
It phones the supplier when you ask
The owner or an admin names who to call and why, and Lumate makes the call and reports back in the chat. Only they can ask, and what someone says on a call never makes Lumate call anyone else.
In the docs: Calls and voice
Each store can have its own line
On the server edition each phone number is given to an agent, with its own inbound scenario and a transfer number, and Lumate answers in the caller's language.
In the docs: Phone systems, Calls and voice
It speaks to people the way you would
Lumate opens each call as the company's assistant, with a recording notice, and a person can listen to a live call on the office line or through WhatsApp Web and take it over.
In the docs: Calls and voice
The data stays on your own machines
The app, its records and the call transcripts live on your server. You use your own AI accounts.
In the docs: Install on a server, Security and compliance
Transcript
Read the transcript of the film
Ruth runs Daybrook Market, twelve stores in London. She asks for an app, and Lumate builds it. A customer calls. Lumate checks the stock and holds a bottle.
Lumate: Hello! You’re through to Lumate, Daybrook Market’s AI assistant, and this call is recorded.
Grace: Hi! Do you have the five-litre olive oil, the one on offer, at your Camden store?
Lumate: Let me check the current offer for you. Yep, it's in Camden. Three in stock at 24 pounds.
Grace: Brilliant. Could you hold one for me? I'll pick it up before seven tonight.
Lumate: Noted! I'll set that up. Done! One five-litre olive oil is held for Grace Holt at Camden for 7 tonight.
Camden is low on milk. Ruth asks Lumate to order more.
Lumate: Hi Hannah, I'm Lumate, Ruth Callaghan's AI assistant. Just so you know, this call is recorded. I'd like to place an order for 120 litres of whole milk for Daybrook Market's Camden store, for delivery tomorrow, Tuesday the 10th, at 7 a.m. Can you help me with that?
Hannah: Let me have a look. Yes, a hundred and twenty litres of whole milk to Camden, tomorrow at seven: that's fine. I'll put it on the first van.
Lumate writes the order down, and the delivery appears on the map.
Lumate. Your company's AI team, at lumate.io.
Questions about Lumate for this business
Can it check stock and hold an item for a caller?
In the film it does both. Lumate reads the stock and the price from the app it built, tells the caller three are in stock at Camden, and notes one held for her until seven. The docs describe a collection that callers may add rows to, such as a shop's holds.
Does it answer each store's phone?
The film's chapter is called "Answers every store's phone". Each phone number can be given to an agent with its own inbound scenario. Lumate opens every call as the company's AI assistant with a recording notice.
Can it call a supplier to order more?
In the film, when Camden runs low on milk and Ruth asks, Lumate calls the dairy and orders 120 litres for 7 a.m. the next day. The supplier agrees, Lumate writes the order down and the delivery appears on the map.
Who approves the order?
A person asks. In the film the owner, Ruth, asks Lumate to order more milk. Only an owner or an admin can ask Lumate to make a call like this, and an agent never decides one on its own, so this page does not promise automatic reordering.
Does the delivery show on a map?
In the film, yes: once the order is written down, the delivery appears on a map, so the owner can see it coming. The map is part of the app Lumate built for the chain.
Does it work with our phone system?
Yes. Lumate registers as an extension on your company's PBX, for example 3CX or Asterisk, and the PBX sends calls to it and carries its outgoing calls. Calls can also go through WhatsApp Web from your office browser.