Automated Inventory Intelligence Systems and Methods

An automated inventory intelligence system, comprising:

• an artificial intelligence (“AI”) agent configured to monitor inventory states in one or more designated areas of an environment selected from a retailer and a warehouse, the AI agent comprising:
• a plurality of digital cameras configured to be disposed in the environment to collect sensory information on inventory items in the one or more designated areas;
• a plurality of effectors configured for response to inventory state changes in the one or more designated areas, each effector of the plurality of effectors being a communication selected from an e-mail message, a short message service (“SMS”) message, a multimedia service (“MMS”) message, an automated telephone call, a voice mail message, and a web browser pop-up initiated at a communication interface of the automated inventory intelligence system;
• an agent program configured to receive sensor data from the plurality of digital cameras and send instructions to the plurality of effectors for the response to the inventory state changes, the agent program comprising:
• an inventory estimation module configured to estimate quantities of the inventory items from the sensor data for current inventory states;
• an inventory assessment module configured to receive one or more previous inventory states and determine the inventory state changes from the current inventory states and the one or more previous inventory states;
• and
• an action assessment module configured to determine from the inventory state changes and one or both inventory evolution models of an AI agent-independent inventory evolution model or an AI agent-dependent inventory evolution model whether or not an action is required in response to the inventory state changes;
• and
• an agent function including inventory-action rules configured for determining from the inventory state changes what action is required in response to the inventory state changes;
• a system memory configured to store instances of the agent program and the agent function at runtime, as well as the one or more previous inventory states and the one or both inventory evolution models to fulfill requests by the inventory assessment module for the one or more previous inventory states and the action assessment module for the one or both inventory evolution models;
• and
• a data controller configured to manage a sensor data flow from the digital cameras to the agent program.

A process of an automated inventory intelligence system, comprising:

• monitoring inventory states in one or more designated areas of an environment selected from a retailer and a warehouse with an artificial intelligence (“AI”) agent, the AI agent comprising one or more sensors disposed in the environment, an agent program, and one or more effectors;
• storing one or more previous inventory states in a system memory for determining inventory state changes from current inventory states;
• collecting sensory information on inventory items in the one or more designated areas with the one or more sensors;
• determining inventory state changes with the agent program from the one or more previous inventory states received from the system memory and the current inventory states in accordance with the sensor data from the one or more sensors;
• sending instructions from the agent program to the one or more effectors for response to inventory state changes;
• and
• responding to the inventory state changes in the one or more designated areas with the one or more effectors.