Appriss Retail, the total loss platform for omnichannel retailers, announced the release of Sidekick, a workflow intelligence layer for returns, shrink, and incidents, natively built into the Appriss Retail platform. Unlike generic conversational chatbots that surface information, Sidekick acts on it by surfacing anomalies and trends, opening investigations, assigning work items, tracking outcomes like returns prevented, and guiding users through plain-language conversations.
Built for Total Retail Loss
Sidekick is built on Appriss Retail’s data intelligence layer, consisting of 20-plus years of cross-retailer transaction data, 250 million unique customer IDs, and roughly 40% of all U.S. retail transactions. That data is the foundation for Appriss Retail’s 99.99% return decision accuracy and powers Sidekick’s ability to reason and make decisions specific to a retailer’s operations.
“Most loss-related work isn’t analysis; it’s figuring out what to do next: which search to run, which case to look at, which store to visit,” said Michael Osborne, CEO, Appriss Retail. “With Sidekick, investigators get answers in less than 5 minutes compared to 45 minutes of manual work. Sidekick gives district managers a full briefing on what to address before visiting a store, like return patterns, failed audits, open investigations, and what’s happening at each location.”
Also Read: Hanshow and Sklavenitis Partner to Deploy Nationwide Digital Shelf Infrastructure
See Sidekick Act, Not Chat
Sidekick is embedded across Appriss Retail’s three core product lines: Engage (omnichannel returns and claims management), Secure (shrink and exception analytics), and Incident (case and audit management). Any analyst, from day-one hires to seasoned investigators, can prompt Sidekick in plain language to take action across a range of loss-related functions. The result is a shorter onboarding curve to adoption, faster case resolution, and significant gains in workflow efficiency.
Examples include:
- Surface cash transactions that occurred at one store over a period of time
- Activate a fraud investigation and assign cases to specialists
- Investigate how many returns have been declined over a period of time
Built To Be Trusted
Sidekick operates within each retailer’s existing permissions and never acts outside a user’s role-based access. Appriss Retail’s AI governance program is led by its chief legal and compliance officer, who holds the IAPP AI Governance Professional (AIGP) certification.
Sidekick supports users and is built for their control. It is available now to Appriss Retail customers. Set up a meeting to learn how Sidekick can vastly improve your loss prevention workflows.
SOURCE: Businesswire




