[Digital Today reporter Shin-hye Ahn] GS Retail said on Wednesday it held a results showcase for the third cohort of its open innovation programme, The GS Challenge Future Retail, or Future Retail.

Future Retail is a startup discovery and incubation project run by GS Retail with the Seoul Center for Creative Economy and Innovation. Selected startups receive 10 million won each in funding for business validation, opportunities to collaborate using GS Retail's business infrastructure and one-on-one mentoring from specialists.

Seven startups were ultimately selected for the third cohort of Future Retail: Crabs, Recon Labs, D.Lab, Datarize, Z AI, Team Limited and Omelet. The programme carried out proof-of-concept verification to apply specialised technologies such as artificial intelligence to GS Retail businesses.

The results showcase held on Feb. 12 was attended by GS Retail employees, including CEO Heo Seo-hong (허서홍), and the seven startups.

The event unveiled outcomes from collaboration synergies over the past four months. They included AI demand-forecasting-based order optimisation pursued by GS25 and Omelet, and AI 'Short Pick' content production pursued by GS Shop and Crabs.

GS Retail plans to push ahead in earnest with various AX collaborations with the seven startups based on the results, including expanding the rollout of its AI-based order optimisation collaboration with Omelet.

Lee Seong-hwa (이성화), head of GS Retail's New Growth Division, said GS Retail is pursuing various synergies with the seven startups and carrying out AX innovation in the retail industry. He said GS Retail will continue to focus on advancing AX innovation led by its open innovation programme to provide differentiated value to customers.