Frank Oliver Schmitz Chief Innovation Engineer

Designed and built an agentic AI assistant for store operations, identified 1.5 years ahead of the industry hype. The system uses Google Agent Development Kit for multi-agent orchestration, targeting 95% intent recognition and 20% time savings on store processes.

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SuperMark Hexagon multi-agent demo

Systematic evaluation of Claude Code and GitHub Copilot as AI coding agents in a pilot with 50 engineers. The results form the decision basis for potential scale-out to approximately 700 developers. Six key decision-makers are directly involved.

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Building an in-house computer vision platform on Microsoft Azure with a team of up to six engineers. The platform combines product recognition, customer flow analysis, fraud detection, and shelf monitoring into a digital twin of the store. Target performance is 95% product recognition and 90% global tracking accuracy.

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Store floorplan with shelf detail view in platform UI

Built and operated a commercial drone delivery service for groceries in a rural area over 26 weeks. The project demonstrated the viability of autonomous drone logistics in food retail, achieving 6.7% household penetration in the coverage area. Media coverage reached over 92 million contacts nationwide.

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Deployed an AI-powered shopping assistant on tablet-equipped smart carts in partnership with an Israeli startup. The system generated over 522,000 interactions, delivered personalized recommendations, and achieved up to 498% sales uplift on individual products.

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Piloted an autonomous sidewalk delivery robot for last-mile logistics with over 100 deliveries within a 1.6 km radius. The 15 kg payload robot operated under a Robot-as-a-Service model. The project yielded reliable data on the economics of robot-assisted neighborhood delivery.

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Europe's first deployment of an autonomous vending vehicle in food retail, connected via Vodafone's 5G network. The vehicle completed 256 transactions in four weeks and was covered by all major German TV networks. The project produced concrete findings on consumer acceptance, regulation, and operating costs of autonomous last-mile retail.

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Evaluated an Israeli AI solution for automated product recognition and shelf monitoring, including GDPR-compliant localization. The project informed the decision to build the in-house HOLON platform.

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Introduced and scaled cashierless shopping technology based on computer vision. Responsible for infrastructure engineering, including GPU server sizing and cooling systems. Handed over to the product team after successful launch. One of the largest cashierless supermarket formats in Europe.

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Pre-opening incident — fire in cooling shelf during installation phase