Forecast demand from your own sales and supply history, publish a shippable quantity distinct from the forecast, and leave the committed plan and the purchase order to the people who sign them.
Ingest sales history, on-hand positions, open purchase orders and supplier lead times from supported planning.
02
Normalise units, calendars and locations, and carry each figure forward with the system it came from.
Reason
03
Produce a demand forecast per item and location, with its error band and the horizon it holds for.
04
Apply the coverage, safety-stock and lead-time rules configured for that category and that supplier.
05
Derive a shippable quantity from stock the plan has actually secured, and keep it apart from the forecast.
Decide
06
Mark items whose ship-date promise rests on stock nobody has yet committed.
07
Route every reorder proposal to the demand planner and every commitment to the category buyer.
Out
08
Retain the inputs, the forecast version, the planner's overrides and the approval against the plan.
09
Execute write actions only inside the approval boundaries agreed during implementation.
→Product statement
The agent proposes a plan; the demand planner approves it, the category buyer signs the purchase commitment, and the retailer answers for the promise.
Example workflow
One item-location, history to plan
AgentHuman
1Demand signal receivedSales history, on-hand position, open purchase orders or a supplier lead-time feed
2Inputs assembledCoverage rules, lead times, the promotion calendar and the stock already committed elsewhere
3Forecast producedDemand forecast, shippable quantity, error band and confidence
4Coverage checks runCoverage checks, allocation-rule checks, emergency-declaration checks and the confidence threshold
No human action required
Stages one to four run unaided, and nothing is bought at any of them — the agent is planning, and the planner's lane opens at the confidence gate.
5DecisionBranches on the coverage threshold
Inside tolerance
Goes to the demand planner to approve.
Outside tolerance
Adds a category-buyer read first.
Planner approval
The plan is held with its inputs, its shippable quantity and the confidence.
Approve · Adjust · Send to buyer review
Approved — released to commit▼
6Planning systems updatedOnly where write access and approval policy allow it
7Cycle evaluatedForecast error, override rate, coverage breaches and markdown taken after the fact
Overrides
Every planner override is counted in the evaluation.
What should not run autonomously
Human approval stays in control
Outside the boundary — human approval required8 items
Approving the committed demand plan.
Signing the purchase commitment.
Setting or changing price during a declared emergency.
Posting any inventory reserve or write-down.
Automation boundaryAgent acts unaided
✓Refresh statistical baselines and recompute forecast error by item.
✓Flag items breaching coverage or excess thresholds.
✓Draft reorder proposals into the planner's queue.
✓Reconcile the forecast against actual and log the variance drivers.
Any write happens inside the boundaries agreed at implementation, never ahead of the planner's approval.
Approving the scarcity allocation ruleset.
Onboarding any external market-data feed.
Publishing a customer-facing restock or ship date.
Overriding the compliance gate on a restricted item.
Example output
One item-location plan, annotated
Everything the agent proposes is attached to the record it was drawn from.
Forecast output · single item-locationIllustrative example
Item
Forecast line
Shippable now
Source of record
Confidence
Where it went
Seasonal apparel
Demand above the coverage band across the horizon, on a first-time long-lead supplier
1,240 units
Planning system and supplier feed
88%
Planner's queue
As receivedTaken from the planning system and the supplier's lead-time feed.
Evidence usedSales historyOpen purchase ordersSupplier lead time
Why this quantityThe shippable figure counts only stock the plan has secured.
ActionApproveAdjustSend to buyer review
What the score decidesBelow the configured threshold the plan picks up a buyer read before it reaches the planner.
Value
Where AI adds value
The same four claims, placed at the point in the workflow where each one applies.
Where the value landsValue 01 – 04
Every item-locationFrom the planning system
03Forecasting
Plan from the record
Draw on sales history, open orders and supplier lead times, and on the coverage rules configured for that category.
01Approved path
Buy what will actually sell
Routine coverage checks and reorder proposals arrive already calculated.
02Human review
Send review to the exposed items
The Mail Order Rule wants a reasonable basis for a ship-date promise at the moment the order is solicited, so items resting on unsecured stock are marked and the planner reads those first.
04Build an evidence trail
Every plan keeps its inputs, its overrides and the planner who approved it.
Integrations
Typical integrations
Five system groups connect to the same agent. Which of them are in scope is decided in discovery.
Forecast error here is the deviation from actual demand across the plan horizon Nestack reports it by slice rather than in aggregate The cohorts that carry it are named, not averaged away..
Slice performance — reported separately, not only in aggregateIllustrative example
Slice
Failure rate
Lift
Lift vs. threshold
Status
New items, long-lead, promoted
6.6%
3.5×
Review
Seasonal items, emergency declared
4.9%
2.6×
Review
Long-tail intermittent demand
3.4%
1.8×
Watch
High-velocity domestic staples
1.7%
0.9×
Normal
Bar: forecast-error lift vs. the all-SKU baseline · scale 0–4.0× · tick marks the 2.0× review threshold2 of 4 slices over threshold
Evidence-linked improvement
The planner decides when a cycle is closed
Closing means the failure is now a case the next release is measured against That suite is what the following detection is measured against..
Improvement cycle · five stagesSwitchback — the path turns at Improve and returns at Learn
01Detect
Forecast error rises in one item class.
02Diagnose
The planner reads the plans and the inputs behind them until one cause is left standing.
03Improve
A version stamp and the source data travel with the correction.
04Verify
Release is held until the affected cases clear.
05Learn
Both the suite and the planning assumptions carry it from then on.
Learn → DetectThe return edge. The next detection runs against a suite this cycle lengthened.
Typical build scope
Twelve workstreams across six weeks
The build scope read against the delivery timeline. Week structure follows the six-week plan — discovery, sources, forecasting workflow, evaluation, integration, then production validation and handover.
WorkstreamWeek 1Week 2Week 3Week 4Week 5Week 6
01Planning workflow discovery and boundary definition.
02Planning and demand-signal assessment.
03Coverage, safety-stock and lead-time rule mapping.
04History ingestion and unit normalisation.
05Forecasting logic.
06Confidence scoring and proposal routing.
07Planner approval workflow.
08Planning-system and purchasing integration.
09Forecast regression cases.
10Guardrails and commitment controls.
11Version-trail instrumentation.
12Deployment, documentation and Agent Care handover.
12 workstreams · 6 weeks · bar shows the weeks a workstream is active — several run in parallelFinal scope and sequence confirmed in discovery
Engagement tiers
What each tier includes
Rows are the capabilities named in each tier's scope. Higher tiers include everything below them.
Capability✓ in scope · — not at this tierPilotOne category, one regionProductionProduction planning systemsAdvancedMultiple banners / regions
Introduced at Pilot
Forecasting to your history and rules✓✓✓
Planner approval✓✓✓
Forecast-error baseline✓✓✓
Introduced at Production
Reporting by SKU class—✓✓
Approval workflow in your systems—✓✓
Approved write-back—✓✓
Planning-system integration—✓✓
Introduced at Advanced
Multi-region planning rules——✓
Multi-stage planning approvals——✓
High item volume——✓
Enterprise planning controls——✓
Build priceFrom $5,000From $8,000Custom quote
Final build priceConfirmed after discovery based on integrations, workflow complexity, transaction volume, approval controls and deployment requirements.
Separate from buildBuild pricing is separate from recurring Agent Care, which covers managed monitoring, evaluations, incidents and verified improvements after launch.
What we need from you
What you bring, and what we build with it
Each input maps to a piece of build scope and a week in the delivery timeline.
You bringWe build with it
01Your item master and location structure→History ingestion and unit normalisationWeek 1
02Representative sales and supply history→Forecasting baseline and shippable-quantity derivationWeek 2
03Your coverage rules and allocation policy→Coverage, allocation and lead-time mapping, and automation-boundary definitionWeek 1
04Access to relevant APIs, feeds or exports→Planning, ERP and supplier-feed assessment, then integration setupWeek 2
05Buys you would take back→Forecast cases and failure-mode testingWeek 4
06The limits on any committed buy→Coverage thresholds, commitment routing and controlsWeek 3
07A named planner to approve the plan→Planner approval workflow, then pilot and production validationWeeks 5–6
Nothing else is requiredDeployment, documentation and Agent Care handover are ours.
Delivery timeline
Four phases across six weeks
Weeks here are occupied, not allocated, and the fifth carries two phases because the work overlaps.
PhaseW1W2W3W4W5W6
DiscoveryW1
BuildW2 – W3
EvaluateW4 – W5
Pilot & LaunchW5 – W6
Week focusW1Planning workflow discovery, rule mapping and the automation boundaryW2Demand history in place, then a baselineW3Forecasting workflow, confidence logic and approval controlsW4Forecast cases and commitment guardrailsW5Planning-system integration, pilot categories and targeted correctionsW6One planning cycle approved by the planner, then handover
Reading the bandA bar covers the weeks its work is named in, and nothing else.
At the end of W6Sign-off on a real plan, then continuous monitoring under Agent Care.
DurationSix-week plan shown · typical delivery 4–6 weeks depending on scope confirmed in discovery.
Next step · Retail AI agent
Build a forecasting agent around the planner who approves the buy.
Show us your history, your coverage rules and who signs the buy. Separate the shippable quantity from the forecast before either one reaches a storefront — the Mail Order Rule wants a reasonable basis for the ship-date promise at the moment the order is solicited, and the FTC grounds that basis in anticipated demand, inventory sufficiency and fulfilment capacity, so a short buy sitting behind a live ship window is already a violation before a carton moves. We map the workflow, set the automation boundary, and name what stays with the planner, the buyer and the controller.
