159 “The tools of Microsoft gave us the opportunity to really build Steijn with a small team in a short amount of time,” says Norman van Ameyden, a product manager at Albert Heijn who focuses on digital product innovation. Using the chat playground in the Azure AI Foundry portal, Van Ameyden’s team rapidly tested different versions of the assistant. Azure AI Foundry is a platform designed to help developers and businesses create, customise and manage AI applications and agents at scale with relative ease. “We wanted to make sure we can do quick proofs of concept and experiments, and that really helped us, because we did a lot of testing just before we went to production,” says Van Ameyden. “And Azure AI Foundry was perfect for that.” Security was another essential part of the implementation. All information exchanged with Steijn is anonymised and deleted every 30 days. The app also uses Azure AI Content Safety to monitor for harmful or inappropriate content, helping ensure a safe and trustworthy experience for users. By taking this approach, Albert Heijn has delivered a unique blend of convenience, customisation and care. “We developed Steijn to answer that key question, ‘What is for dinner tonight?’,” says Holleman. “If you have two friends coming over who eat gluten-free, or you want to eat vegetarian, and you don’t want to be in the kitchen more than 20 minutes. Steijn will give you multiple recipe suggestions and really help you with answering that question.” The app now supports over five million users, many of whom also use it in-store via the built-in scanner function. Shoppers can scan items as they go, then check out using self-service pay stations so no waiting in line required. By combining AI-powered meal planning with smart in-store convenience, Albert Heijn’s app is saving customers an estimated 90 minutes to two hours a week. Steijn not only reduces time spent on shopping and planning, but also encourages healthier and more diverse eating habits, demonstrating how impactful a thoughtfully designed AI assistant can be. RETAIL & CG Norman van Ameyden, left in foreground, with the team that built Steijn “ We developed Steijn to answer that key question, ‘What is for dinner tonight?’” JOERD HOLLEMAN, ALBERT HEIJN Photo: Chris Welsch for Microsoft
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