Centric Software Adds AI to Pricing Tools

- Centric Software is a subsidiary of the French company Dassault Systèmes, a world leader in 3D design software. This acquisition history includes the purchases of retail planning provider Armonica Retail in 2021, market intelligence firm StyleSage in 2022, and predictive pricing software provider aifora in 2023. - The company's new AI capabilities are integrated into its Centric Pricing & Inventory™ platform, which is designed to boost revenues by up to 18% through price and inventory optimization. The system provides explainable AI, which breaks down price suggestions in plain language to demystify the "black-box" complexity of AI decisions. - In October 2025, Fabrice Canonge was promoted to CEO, succeeding the company's founder, Chris Groves. Canonge has been with Centric since 2004 and previously held roles including president, COO, and EVP of Global Sales and Marketing. - Centric's broader product suite includes Centric PLM™ for product lifecycle management, Centric Planning™ for merchandise financial planning, and Centric Market Intelligence™ for analyzing consumer trends and competitor pricing. - The company primarily serves industries with short lifecycle products, such as fashion, footwear, luxury, and other seasonal goods, helping them improve full-price sell-through and reduce reliance on markdowns. - AI-powered demand forecasting helps retailers reduce inventory errors by as much as 50% and can increase forecast accuracy from 70% with manual methods to over 90%. This allows for optimized stock levels, reducing the costs associated with both overstocking and stockouts. - Competitors in the broader Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) space include PTC, Aras, and Arena. In the fashion retail AI space, major brands like Zara and Patagonia use similar AI-driven tools for inventory management and dynamic pricing. - The new platform includes simulation capabilities that allow teams to test different pricing and inventory strategies before implementation, which has been associated with an increase in AI adoption of over 25% in early pilots.