Researchers at the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) are currently working on optimising data on international trade, invoicing, internet traffic and customer segmentation. As part of this project, they are seeking to develop tools based on the use of artificial intelligence to improve the commercial decision-making processes of cooperatives and small agricultural enterprises.

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, many small agricultural structures are dependent on their commercial efficiency. They are not necessarily subject to a lack of customers, but this business involves the management of a huge volume of data that cannot always be analyzed with a view to optimizing sales and increasing the number of customers.

To help them meet this challenge, several researchers at the UOC decided to develop a platform to help make good business decisions. This project is co-led by the Falset Marça agricultural cooperative, the Centre Vinícola del Penedès and the Federation of Agricultural Cooperatives of Catalonia and financed by the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Agri-food of the Government of Catalonia.

Xavi Domènech, director of the Falset Marçà cooperative and a graduate in computer science from the UOC, spoke about the databases of small businesses and cooperatives and commercial decision-making:

Companies today, gather enough data to be able to make more sophisticated business decisions than they can usually make. Customizing their business structure and equipping it with quality methods and processes is the key to ensuring their survival. We believe that supporting this kind of process by introducing AI can be a differentiating factor.

The UOC researchers involved in the project, John Cardona and Diego Oliva, are accompanied by Ángel A. Juan, a professor in the UOC’s Faculty of Computer Science, Multimedia and Telecommunications, who is also the director of the Internet Computing Systems Optimization (ICSO) group at the UOC’s Internet Interdisciplinary Institute (IN3). The latter explains that his team wishes to use their extensive experience in research and transfer of data analysis and algorithms:

“Our role is to provide support for the digitization process of agricultural businesses. Specifically, this involves analysing the huge amount of data generated by their online business platforms and, based on the results, developing algorithms to help them better reach their potential customer market, optimise their digital marketing processes and adapt their offering to the specific needs of their target market.”

Translated from L’IA au service des coopératives et des petites entreprises agricoles : l’exemple des recherches de l’UOC en Catalogne