What happens if no similar item has ever sold? Items with no sales history are automatically excluded as sources — they're never used, even if they'd otherwise be a strong match on name, description, or category. If too few qualifying items exist at item group level 2, AGR automatically broadens the search to item group level 1, then to the whole location, to find enough real sales history to build from.
What if a similar item was heavily promoted, and its sales spiked? Because AI Sales History blends 10 weighted items, not just one, a promotional spike in any single source item is naturally diluted by the other nine. AGR's platform also includes separate outlier-detection capabilities elsewhere in the forecasting engine, which further reduce the influence of one-off spikes.
What if a similar item was out of stock for a period? AGR's Out of Stock Bridging capability is designed to work alongside AI-generated sales history, helping ensure a stockout period in a source item doesn't get read as low real demand.
What happens once the new item starts getting real sales of its own? The synthetic history acts as a bridge, not a permanent record. After the item's first full period of real sales (a full month or full week, depending on forecast frequency), AGR compares actual demand to the AI baseline and automatically scales the synthetic history to match. As more real sales come in, the forecast leans progressively more on the item's own history.
Can I see which items were used to build the forecast? Yes. Open the AI Sales History settings for the item to see the 10 similar items selected as sources and the weight each one was given.
Does this replace my own judgment on new item orders? No — it's a data-backed starting point, not an autopilot. Review the AI Sales History series and the similar-items list, and adjust the forecast start date or the sales plan if you know something the data doesn't (an upcoming promotion, a different launch timing, and so on).
Is this feature available to everyone? AI Sales History is currently in Beta. It's opt-in, and you can enable or disable it per item at any time.
Will this feature keep changing? Yes — as a Beta feature, we're actively refining AI Sales History based on customer feedback. If you have thoughts after testing it, your Customer Success Manager would like to hear them.