IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Sharing Solutions: How local approaches enable global success

Setting sail for the coffee business of tomorrow: On course to the first ERP rollout for NGUS

Depicting NKG’s growth in Asia: Insights from Mira Yudhawati and Emily Chua

Smart design for a sustainable future: The Ibero Uganda mill project

Behind the scenes

Mail from NG Comms: A personal Update

Virtual Tour: Berindo Jaya

Faces and portraits

Interview with Thomas Silva

Interview with Marcelo de Paula Nogueira

On a Cupping with Maks Mazurkiewicz

A visit with Kayd Whalen

NKG Integrity Champion: Thumbs up for reliable colleagues

NKG Holding who is who: Introducing Legal Department

Breaking the coffee ceiling: Inspiring women at NKG

Out of the box

Three by Three Questions: EUDR challenges and implementation

Time to take action: Neumann Gruppe donates to the promotion of democracy

At a glance

Recap: What happened in half-year one / 2024

It's your turn

Quiz: Spot the Difference

OUT OF THE BOX

Three by Three Questions: AI at NKG – benefits, opportunities, limitations

OUT OF THE BOX

Three by Three Questions: AI at NKG – benefits, opportunities, limitations

At this point, I would like to reassure you that this introductory text has not been written with an AI, but by me – and it includes my very own ideas only. Will I still be doing this on my own in a few years time? I don’t know. Do I hope to do so? Definitely yes, because I like writing for you, dear readers, by myself. However, the use of AI tools, such as the online translation program DeepL, are already commonplace for me. Everyone’s talking about AI, but for most of us, it’s still not very tangible. That’s why, in this issue of our Three by Three Questions, we’re going to take a look at AI, its potential and its limitations in NKG’s business. In addition, our three experts give you and me some hands-on advice on how to deal with AI.

What opportunities does AI offer for our business?

AI is not only ChatGPT. It is a broad domain with different aspects: machine learning, natural language processing, expert systems, robotics, neural networks, cognitive systems, etc. … Therefore, there are a lot of opportunities for our business. We use it already in our Endpoint protection system SentinelOne to detect abnormal behavior of programs on all servers and users’ devices (laptops, desktops) but we could use it for traffic forecast for our shipments, in risk management to detect anomalies or process big amounts of data, for trade to forecast Coffee pricing, forecast coffee production or even monitor some topics like deforestation based on image recognition.

I think the important thing to remember about AI is that it's ultimately a tool like any other. If handled correctly it can make your work easier, but it's not going to do your work for you. AI is very good at coming up with solutions to clearly defined problems – for a multinational tradehouse like ourselves one such problem might be logistics, which has proved a consistent headache over the last couple of years. I think the increasing digitization of global trade is going to allow for innovative AI solutions to everything from warehouse management and supply chain efficiency to demand prediction and stock requirements.

Artificial intelligence (AI) offers NKG various opportunities to improve its business. By using AI algorithms, for example, forecasting models can be developed to estimate future demand for coffee. This enables optimized planning of purchasing and warehousing. In addition, AI can be used in quality control to automatically check coffee beans for defects to ensure higher quality. Furthermore, AI enables the automation of processes such as order processing or customer communication, which leads to an increase in efficiency. Overall, AI can help NKG to optimize its business processes and become more competitive.

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Cyrille Négaret, Head of Group IT, Hamburg, Germany

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Tom Copple, Research NKG Statistical Unit, London, UK

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ChatGPT, (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), language model-based chatbot and probably the most famous AI tool in the world

Where does AI reach its limits in our business?

As far as I know there's no AI yet that can pick a coffee bean (though it might be able to tell you when the optimum time to harvest is), and coffee farmers are the foundation of our entire industry. From bean to cup coffee really is a people business, and I don't see that changing in the near future.

Although AI offers many advantages, it also faces some limitations in the business of a green coffee service group like NKG. For one, AI cannot fully replace human expertise and sensory judgment in evaluating coffee quality. In addition, algorithms may have difficulty recognizing complex patterns and relationships in the coffee market. In addition, the use of AI often requires an extensive amount of data that may not always be available. Finally, ethical issues related to AI need to be considered, particularly with respect to consumer data protection and transparency of decision-making processes.

The main issue is always the quality of data. In order to have the right results out of any AI-engine, you have to base your analysis or your process on reliable data. This is currently what we are aiming for within NKG. In many on-going IT projects, we are giving a special attention to this goal: get high quality data and make them available in one single version, so that everybody speaks the same language. So, the real challenge is to gather the necessary data, harmonize them and to check their quality before using them.

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Tom Copple, Research NKG Statistical Unit, London, UK

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ChatGPT, (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), language model-based chatbot and probably the most famous AI tool in the world

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Cyrille Négaret, Head of Group IT, Hamburg, Germany

What advice do you have for employees when dealing with AI?

First, they should familiarize themselves with the basics of AI to better understand the technology and recognize its capabilities and limitations. Second, they should be open to using AI and be willing to learn new skills to work effectively with the technology. Third, it is important to consider the ethical aspects of AI and ensure that it is used responsibly and transparently. Finally, employees should be aware that AI can support them in their work but will not replace it, and that human expertise and judgment will continue to be of great importance.

Be cautious and critical! This means: avoid using personal data, do not share business critical information and at the end, review the result you are getting out of any enquiry. Don’t take for granted what an AI-engine tells you! The answers may not be based on current information or the AI-algorithm may not be as good as you think. Please use your common sense.

It's important to bear in mind that AI is a bit of a misnomer, it really isn't intelligent at all, just extremely good at guessing based on its model. AI models are generally trained and based on real world data, and so they incorporate any underlying biases or misconceptions into their models. That means approaching any AI-generated content with some critical thinking and making sure you understand where the results have come from.

ChatGPT-Logo_square

ChatGPT, (Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer), language model-based chatbot and probably the most famous AI tool in the world

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Cyrille Négaret, Head of Group IT, Hamburg, Germany

tom-copple-41916024297_square

Tom Copple, Research NKG Statistical Unit, London, UK

Header image: Adobe Firefly

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Mail from NG Comms: A personal Update

We talked about it in this issue a lot: if everything is crazy and fast enough, how can we structure us and communicate inside our group, literally INSIDE NKG, to make it clearer for you and all of us? With that in mind, we at NG Comms did our best to enhance our internal communication activities for the future. We really did. You cannot imagine how long it took us to discuss, for example, the new names of our communication channels so that they would make sense and everyone would immediately know what we are talking about.

Virtual Tour: Exploring NKG India’s Hassan Mill

Embark on a digital exploration of NKG India’s Hassan milling facility, the cornerstone of our coffee production. This virtual tour offers an authentic look into the operations of India’s largest coffee mill, featuring the arrival of coffee, meticulous quality checks, milling processes, and the storage of export-ready coffee in advanced silos.

Recap: What happened in half-year two?

Which topics have been relevant or will be coming up at NKG? Find out more on the EU Regulation on Deforestation-Free Products (EUDR), the new logistics software Cargoo and the company summer party in Hamburg to the first World of Coffee in Busan, South Korea, in 2024 and a lot more …

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Neumann Gruppe GmbH
Coffee Plaza • Am Sandtorpark 4
20457 Hamburg • Germany

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PRIVACY POLICY

Neumann Gruppe GmbH
Coffee Plaza
Am Sandtorpark 4
20457 Hamburg • Germany