The use of this forecasting tool is at the user’s own risk. Lightspeed cannot guarantee the accuracy and reliability of the insights generated. Actual results may differ. The tool is provided for informational purposes only and should not be considered as financial, investment, or legal advice. Users are encouraged to exercise caution before making business decisions based on the tool’s output.

Lightspeed AI is a smart assistant built into Retail POS. From any page, you can open a chat and ask questions about sales, inventory, and customers, or make requests using plain language, like "Create a new product in the Footwear category".

Lightspeed AI will analyze your store data and offer insights and opportunities you can action on, including draft updates to your inventory or catalog. You can then review and confirm that you want to make the change, continue the chat to request modifications, or reject the proposed update.

Understanding Lightspeed AI

After enabling Lightspeed AI, you can open a chat and ask the smart assistant questions to:

• Compare sales data from different periods to identify trends and opportunities.
• Gain insights into brand and product performance.
• Analyze inventory data for specific products or groups of products.
• Create draft purchase orders and transfers between locations.
• Analyze customer and customer group purchasing trends.
• Understand staff performance.

You can also ask Lightspeed AI to take action in the account. Before any action is taken, a preview of the change and list of proposed actions is shared in the conversation. No changes are implemented unless the user clicks Confirm. Approved changes and the user who approved the update are recorded on the associated product or inventory page.

You are responsible for any approved changes made in your account, so it’s important to carefully review any proposed changes before confirming.

Click the Lightspeed AI icon at the top-right of any page to start a new chat by topic, view your chat history, or continue a previous chat. In chat conversations, the smart assistant may:

• Ask follow up questions to clarify a question or request.
• Shorten large reports, lists, or tables. You can ask it to show more details or expand on the information as needed.

Lightspeed AI will automatically name each conversation based on the content of the discussion and list them chronologically in the chat history, starting with the most recently created or continued chat.

Lightspeed AI can understand English, French, Dutch and other supported languages.

Lightspeed AI user permissions

Access to Lightspeed AI is limited to certain users in your account:

• Account owners and Admin users can enable Lightspeed AI.
• Once enabled, Manager users can also use Lightspeed AI on their account.
• Cashiers and other users do not have access to Lightspeed AI.

Lightspeed AI inherits the permissions of the user operating it, meaning it can only read and write data that the user has access to in their account. Conversations are private to the user.

Enabling Lightspeed AI

If you’re using the reporting Insights feature, Lightspeed AI will already be enabled in your account.

To enable Lightspeed AI in your account:

1. From any page in Retail POS, click the Lightspeed AI icon at the top-right of the page.

   

2. Review the terms and conditions, then click Join Lightspeed AI beta.

   This accepts the terms and conditions on behalf of all eligible Admin and Manager users across the merchant account.

Lightspeed AI will open and be available for use on any page in Retail POS.

Using Lightspeed AI

Available to Account owners, Admin users, and Manager users.

To open a new conversation with Lightspeed AI:

1. From any page in Retail POS, click the Lightspeed AI icon at the top-right of the page.

2. In the chat window, click a suggested prompt or type a question about sales, inventory, or customers in the chat field. You can also request an update to your catalog or inventory.

   

3. Press Enter on your keyboard to submit the prompt.
4. If further details are needed to complete the request, Lightspeed AI will ask follow-up questions. Enter your answers in the text field to continue the conversation.

5. If a report was generated, click View report details > View report.

   

   If an update was proposed, review the change, then click Approve or Reject. If needed, you can request updates to the proposal before confirming a change.

   

   You are responsible for any approved changes made in your account, so it’s important to carefully review any proposed changes before confirming. Approved changes and the user who approved the update are recorded on the associated product or inventory page.

   Bulk updates may take some time to complete. Once the update is complete, you’ll be notified in the chat with a link to view the product or inventory update.

   

Lightspeed AI example prompts

You can ask Lightspeed AI questions like:

• "What were my top-selling products this month?"
• "Which products haven't sold in the last 90 days?"
• "Which hours of the day are busiest for sales?"
• "How much inventory do I have across my locations?"
• "Which products need reordering based on forecast sales?"
• "Who are my top customers by average basket value?"
• "Find all products from (supplier)."
• "Which products are missing an image?"

You can also request actions like:

• "Create a purchase order with (supplier) for 5 units of (product)."
• "Move 2 units of (product) from (outlet) to (outlet)."

• "Request stock from (other outlet)."

  The other manager at the other location will still need to approve the transfer request.

• "Reduce the price of every product in (category name) category by 20%."
• "Make sure every product from (supplier) has at least a 40% margin."
• "Tag my slow-moving products as 'Clearance'."

Lightspeed AI limitations

There are some actions that Lightspeed AI is unable to complete. Currently, the smart assistant cannot:

• Delete anything, including products, purchase orders, and transfers.
• Change sales, promotions, or reorder points.
• Update purchase orders or transfers after they’re created.
• Update customers, like changing customer details or adding customers to a group.

As the tool is further developed, limitations may change.

To view a list of available actions, ask "What can Lightspeed AI help with?" in the chat window.

Continuing a previous chat

To continue or view details of a previous chat:

1. From any page in Retail POS, click the Lightspeed AI icon at the top-right of the page.

2. In the chat window, click the reverse arrow (View history) icon.

   

3. Click a previous conversation to reopen the chat.

Viewing Lightspeed AI changes and approvals

Approved changes and the user who approved the update are recorded on the associated product or inventory page. You can also find links to changes you approved in your chat history.

Viewing your own changes

To view a change you approved from your account:

1. From any page in Retail POS, click the Lightspeed AI icon at the top-right of the page.
2. In the chat window, click the reverse arrow (View history) icon.
3. Click a previous conversation where a change was made.

4. Click the View (Product / Purchase order / Transfer) link.

   

Viewing product changes made by any user

To view changes made to a product:

1. Navigate to Catalog > Products.
2. Locate the product and click the row to expand it.
3. Click the History tab.

4. In the Action column, product updates made through Lightspeed AI will be labeled as Created / Edited (via API). The Made by column lists the user who approved the change. Click the row to expand and view more details.

   

   To view inventory transfers for the product and the associated user, click View inventory movements.

Viewing inventory changes made by any user

To view inventory changes:

1. Navigate to Inventory > Products.

2. On the Stock control page, click: 

   • Orders > Order number to view the creation date, the approver (Created by), and other details.
   • Requests > click the row to expand it > click the History tab.
   • Transfers or Returns > Reference to view the creation date, the approver (Created by), and other details.

   

What’s next?