Your enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are only as reliable as the data powering them.
Conversations about AI tend to focus on algorithms and large language models. Those tools get the headlines, but they aren’t able to operate effectively if your data is incomplete, stale, or disconnected from physical reality. Garbage in, garbage out is still true for AI; however, the stakes are higher now. The decisions you're automating touch your inventory, fulfillment and customer experience in real time.
At Avery Dennison, we think about this problem from the ground up. Sensor technology like RFID isn't just a tool for counting inventory anymore. It's the physical-to-digital bridge that feeds your enterprise AI systems with real-time, item-level “ground truth” that makes them operational, trustworthy, and actionable. Without that bridge, even your most advanced system predicts about a world it can't actually see.
How has RFID changed inventory accuracy over the past two decades?
RFID's initial breakthrough was solving the visibility problem. Twenty years ago, inventory accuracy across the industry hovered around 65%. That made omnichannel fulfillment and accurate floor replenishment nearly impossible. By capturing item-level data across millions of SKUs, RFID pushed accuracy upward of 99%. It provides a reliable record of what you have and where it is.
While that was a huge leap, point-in-time accuracy is no longer enough. We’re entering a new era where continuous and precise data will become a prerequisite for AI systems to take on more decision-making load.
Why does AI need continuous precision, not just periodic accuracy?
A cycle count tells you what the truth was yesterday (or whenever the last count was taken). Autonomous AI-driven operations need to know what's true in real-time, on a continuous basis. When you fuse multi-sensor technology data with continuous reading, it becomes more than a snapshot. It becomes a living digital twin of your environment.
In practice, this is about augmenting existing systems to maximize potential; faster restocking, more informed associates, driving a better customer experience. This live data feed empowers instant, automated decision-making for crucial needs like inventory management, omnichannel fulfillment and loss prevention that static batch updates simply can't support.
What role does Avery Dennison play in building this physical intelligence layer?
AI needs real-time, trustworthy data, and that data has to start somewhere physical. Every item on your shelf or pallet needs to be digitally identifiable at scale. That's the layer we build. Our integrated portfolio of leading edge sensor technologies, including RFID, provide the connective tissue between your physical goods and the digital systems that rely on this ground truth. It is what moves your business from incremental gains to transformative operational outcomes.
This isn't a side conversation for us. It's our core thesis: your AI strategy and your item-level data strategy should be in lock step with each other.
Learn more about RFID and the future of frontline AI.
Want a deeper dive into how RFID and sensor fusion pave the way for "physical AI"? Listen to the latest episode of the Zebra Podcast. Bill Toney, our VP & GM of Intelligent Label Growth, joins Zebra Technologies' CTO, Tom Bianculli, to discuss the shift to the age of precision.
