In this episode, we sit down with members of the MIT Low Income Firms Transformation (LIFT) Lab: Director Josué Velázquez Martínez, Postdoctoral Researcher Sreedevi Rajagopalan, and Doctoral Student Fabio Castro.
We discuss the LIFT Lab's work empowering micro retailers and nanostores in emerging markets to lift themselves out of poverty. These retailers, while making up an overwhelming majority of retail business in their regions, are at a significant disadvantage when dealing with large suppliers and competing with large retailers-some 30% of these firms fail within 5 years of opening.
Using generative AI, the LIFT Lab is helping these retailers enhance their business decision-making and supply chain capabilities to help them survive and thrive.