Bealls has been around for more than a century, but the Florida-based retailer isn’t afraid to modernize. You see, the company just rolled out Profitmind’s Agentic AI platform across its entire business to improve merchandise planning and inventory optimization.
I’ll admit, I like shopping at Bealls when I visit Florida. The store has always been a reliable place to find good deals, and it’s part of what makes the trip feel familiar. Seeing the company lean on AI to make smarter decisions about what to stock and when makes me curious about how the in-store experience might change.
The company says that during the initial deployment it saw a 20 percent jump in planning accuracy. That kind of improvement matters in retail, where overstocking or understocking can eat into margins quickly. With Profitmind’s system, Bealls can speed up its planning cycles, make sharper forecasts, and let staff focus on higher-value work instead of getting stuck in spreadsheets.
Profitmind describes its platform as a set of AI agents that constantly crunch both internal and external data. These agents highlight opportunities, recommend next steps, and in some cases execute actions tied directly to business goals. Bealls has already been acting on about 80 percent of the platform’s suggestions, which shows a strong level of trust in what the AI is surfacing.
The tech was apparently developed under the direction of Dr. Mark Chrystal and AI pioneer Andrew Ng, who helped popularize the “Agentic AI” concept. Beyond merchandise planning, the system can inform decisions on pricing, assortment, and competition. Early adopters outside Bealls report revenue bumps of more than 20 percent and margin improvements in the mid-teens.
Bealls may be 110 years old, but it thankfully isn’t stuck in the past. By adopting this kind of technology, it is aiming to stay competitive while still offering value to shoppers like me who appreciate deals when visiting Florida. If this AI truly keeps shelves stocked with the right products at the right time, shopping at Bealls might get even better.
