AI Is Making Its Way into Category Management

Category management is one of the most important management tools in the retail industry. It determines which products customers find on store shelves or in online stores, how product assortments are structured, and how retailers and brand manufacturers work together to drive growth. But it is precisely this process that is facing a fundamental transformation: Artificial intelligence is changing the way categories are analyzed, planned, and managed—faster, more data-driven, and more forward-looking than ever before.

From Delayed Decisions to Predictive Control

While category managers used to spend days on Excel analyses, reports, and manual analyses, AI opens up entirely new possibilities. Today, sales data can be combined in real time with trends, customer behavior, loyalty data, or external factors. Customers and scenarios can be simulated, trends can be forecasted, and results can be continuously monitored—rather than only during long planning cycles, as was previously the case. This leads to more robust decisions, deeper customer insights, and significantly more time for strategic tasks.

«Artificial intelligence will fundamentally transform category management. What matters now is that professionals not only know the technology but also understand how it can be applied in a scientifically sound yet practical way throughout the entire category management process. That is precisely why we are bringing academia and the professional world together,» explains Prof. Dr. Dirk Morschett, a retail expert at the University of Freiburg and co-director of the study.

Science Meets the Realities of Business

The new CAS in «Category Management & AI» is the result of close collaboration between the University of Fribourg and GS1 Switzerland’s Competence Center for Category Management. While the university contributes scientific insights, methodological expertise, and strategic perspective, GS1 Switzerland provides practical knowledge from the retail and industrial sectors.

Together, the program leaders and 20 subject matter experts are developing an end-to-end AI workflow that spans all eight steps of the category management process—from strategic alignment and category analysis to implementation and performance monitoring. Participants will not only learn about AI tools but also develop a customizable toolkit for use in their own companies.

«Category management has always been data-driven. With AI, however, we’re entering a whole new dimension: more data sources, real-time analytics, more precise forecasts, and significantly more informed decisions. Our goal is to make the potential of AI tangibly usable throughout the entire process—for both retailers and manufacturers,» says Marilyne Filliger, Head of the Competence Center for Category Management at GS1 Switzerland and co-lead of the study.

A training program with a unique selling point

The CAS combines cutting-edge AI applications with the established ECR category management process, experienced experts from retail, industry, and academia, and concrete use cases from everyday professional life. The focus is not on theoretical demonstrations, but on immediately applicable AI workflows that participants can adapt to their own categories.

The first course begins on September 18, 2026. A virtual information session will be held on August 13, 2026, from 5:00 p.m. to 5:45 p.m. The registration deadline is August 31, 2026.

More information: https://www.unifr.ch/iimt/en/cas/cas-category-management-and-ki/