Simon Skoog on AI-Powered Logistics: How Apotea Delivers Customer Loyalty Through Automation and Safe AI Wins

This time, we sit down with Simon Skoog, Chief AI Officer at Apotea, and AWS’s David Alele. Apotea, Sweden's leading online pharmacy, maintains its reputation through a core strategy of fast deliveries, low prices, and free delivery, achieved largely through high automation. Simon discusses how Apotea builds its tech infrastructure for future scalability and the dynamic partnership with AWS for cloud services and expert consultation. A unique aspect highlighted is Simon's approach to leading AI teams as a non-technical leader, focusing on strategy, people, and removing organizational "noise" by positioning the AI team as an internal startup directly under the CEO. The episode details Apotea's strategy of prioritizing "safe wins" over "quick wins" for AI projects, such as their successful implementation of product recommendations that significantly boosted conversion rates. They also explore the vast opportunities of Generative AI for internal efficiency (developer tools) and customer-facing applications (chatbots), while maintaining caution on AI-generated advice due to the paramount importance of customer trust.