Over the next two years, Alimentation Couche-Tard is installing more than 7,000 automated check-outs that use artificial intelligence to recognize the products that customers want to purchase, without having to scan each item individually. There are already more than 500 of these point-of-sale units in place – including at the Bensadoun School of Retail Management’s Retail Innovation Lab, where Alimentation Couche-Tard tested the technology. It has been deployed at locations in Arizona, and is being tested in South Carolina and Denmark.

For years, paparazzi have been clicking candid shots of Justin Bieber cradling Tim Hortons coffee cups, but it still came as a surprise to see Biebs Brew become an official menu item at Canada’s most popular coffee chain. The novelty aspect of this type of collaboration can help drive sales, said Charles de Brabant in a story in The Globe and Mail. Biebs Brew might only be available for a limited time, but some collaborations can last for decades – like those between athletes and apparel brands.

Reducing waste can help lower the environmental impact of any business, and Javad Nasiry believes that policy can help achieve this. The fashion industry is a major source of carbon emissions, and fast fashion retailers have made it worse with low-quality apparel designed to be worn only a few times. The Associate Professor of Operations Management argues that the fashion industry could be made greener by requiring the sustainable disposal of waste and taxing waste to make both manufacturers more waste conscious.

At a glance, the Couche-Tard in the Bronfman Building looks much like any other. But it is actually an innovative research facility that uses technology to improve our understanding consumer behaviour. Known as the Retail Innovation Lab, a partnership between McGill’s Bensadoun School of Retail Management and Alimentation Couche-Tard, it is the first frictionless store in Canada. At the Retail Innovation Lab, computer vision systems recognize grab-and-go items in real time, and payments are processed digitally, so customers can shop quickly.

Dynamic pricing algorithms set the prices we pay online—and few rules govern how they work. Even if an algorithm doesn’t ostensibly consider race at all, research shows that it can be biased and discriminatory on the basis of race, as well as gender, economic level, and other personal information openly gathered from consumers.

Poets&Quants has named Professor Maxime Cohen to its annual Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors of 2022 list. The influential business school news site annually recognizes professors under the age of 40 who are masters in the classroom, influence business and policy, are prolific researchers and have demonstrated meaningful impact on their fields.

Data can tell you a lot about the current state of business, and what the future holds. That’s information that companies can use to make strategic decisions, and it is multiplying quickly. Up to 90 per cent of all data was created in the past two years alone. To leverage, Prof. Maxime Cohen recommends executive education programs in data science as a way to understand the possibilities, and communicate effectively with data scientists.