Zebra Technologies has announced a partnership with Google Cloud, Android, and Qualcomm to bring generative AI capabilities to frontline workers across industries.

The collaboration integrates Zebra’s technological expertise with advanced AI from Google Cloud, hardware from Qualcomm, and software from Android. 

The new capabilities are designed to assist front-line employees by easing the cognitive load on these workers and helping them make better decisions in real time by providing a chat experience on their handheld devices.

By harnessing generative AI with domain-specific knowledge, frontline staff will soon have access to a chat experience on their handheld devices. This will allow them to retrieve information and get answers to task-related queries easily.

Tom Bianculli, Chief Technology Officer at Zebra Technologies, emphasised the conversation shift around generative AI, moving from ‘how’ it works to ‘what’ it can achieve. 

He envisions a future where planning and execution systems merge seamlessly, accelerated by finely tuned, real-world AI models capable of scheduling tasks, responding to requests, and providing context-based recommendations.

A European supermarket chain has experienced this collaboration firsthand where, feeding the AI model with the company’s entire standard operating procedure (SOP) library, employees can now tap into a vast knowledge base derived from policies, procedures, and product information. 

This ‘always-on’ digital assistant has the potential to reduce time to competency, ensure consistent best practices, improve customer interactions, and enhance employee satisfaction.

Rouzbeh Aminpour, Global Retail Solution Engineering Manager at Google Cloud, emphasises the fundamental change generative AI brings to organisations, fueling a new era of customer and employee interactions with businesses and brands.

Apart from this partnership, Zerba also partnered with Qualcomm, showcasing how their phones and tablets could use a large language model (LLM) without needing connectivity to the cloud.