For the past three years, IKEA Retail (Ingka Group), the international furniture and home good retailer, has participated in the Wharton AI & Analytics Accelerator, an experiential learning program offered by the Wharton AI & Analytics Initiative (WAIAI) which pairs teams of qualified students with companies to solve real business challenges. We spoke with Christine Cox, WG’01, Head of Digital Data and Analytics for IKEA USA, and Tania de Sousa Dias, Global Vice President of AI Adoption & Governance at IKEA, to learn how IKEA continues to find value in the Accelerator year after year.

Optimizing Delivery and Fulfillment

During the fall of 2024, IKEA worked with two teams of data-savvy students ranging from undergraduate data analysts and Penn engineers to Wharton MBAs who bring critical business acumen to the project. Those teams spent eight weeks diving into IKEA’s data to identify friction points and develop practical solutions for resolving them. The teams met weekly with Cox and her IKEA colleagues, who helped guide the teams’ exploration and answered any pressing questions.

Entering this semester’s Accelerator, Cox and her team were interested in identifying ways for the company to optimize its delivery and fulfillment systems while maintaining affordability—a core principle of the IKEA brand. “While we serve customers through multiple channels, delivering to them affordably remains a key priority,” explains Cox.

All of the students’ hard work culminated during the Accelerator Summit, a day-long meeting where representatives from IKEA and the other companies participating in the Accelerator assemble on campus at the Wharton School. There, student teams deliver their final data analysis and present actionable insights that their respective companies can implement. hear final in-person presentations from their teams.

Cox was particularly impressed by the quality of the insights her teams were able to uncover. “The students came back with solutions that we hadn’t thought of before,” she notes. “Their findings were so actionable that I’ll be sharing them directly with our key business partners.”

By aligning academic analysis with business needs, the Accelerator has enabled IKEA to implement forward-thinking solutions quickly—a crucial advantage in today’s fast-paced retail environment.

A Fresh Approach to AI and Governance

Beyond solving specific business challenges, the Accelerator offers IKEA a window into emerging trends in AI adoption. Tania de Sousa Dias, IKEA’s leader of AI Adoption and Governance, highlights the importance of responsible AI usage. “For us, AI isn’t just a tool for efficiency,” she says. “It’s about creating positive societal impact and ensuring alignment with IKEA’s values.”

This ethical commitment resonated throughout the Accelerator projects, where students explored creative, responsible applications of AI to meet IKEA’s challenges while considering environmental and social impacts.

“The thing that schools like Wharton and Penn can be doing to prepare students [for a world with AI] is actually part of the Accelerator program,” said de Sousa Dias. “It is introducing and exposing students to these new emerging technologies…and helping students develop critical thinking skills for how to use AI, asking – what’s the best use of AI to solve the questions we have? I think it’s a major advantage.”