WMU food marketing students get cutting-edge AI industry tool through six-figure gift
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—Intent Ai, developer of the AiRICA category management platform, has gifted Western Michigan University’s food marketing program with first-in-the-country access to its agentic artificial intelligence model built to support the next generation of category management.
AiRICA, short for Ai Responsible Intelligent Coach and Advisor, is an agentic AI platform that helps retailers and manufacturers turn category management from static to dynamic, with an AI-enabled growth engine, aligning shelf-level decisions with category strategy. The gift of the platform is valued in the six-figure range, and Western’s food marketing program, led by Dr. Russell Zwanka, will be the first academic program in the nation to be able to give students hands-on access to the same agentic AI environment used by leading retailers and manufacturers.
The partnership builds on nearly two years of collaboration between Intent Ai and WMU, rooted in a long-standing relationship between Intent Ai co-founder and CEO Dr. Brian Harris and Zwanka.
Complementary to the partnership, Intent Ai and WMU are also launching Next Generation Category Management Training and Certification, a new program powered by AiRICA that will prepare students and industry professionals to practice category management alongside agentic AI. The training and certification program is set to begin in fall 2026 at WMU’s Haworth College of Business.
“Gifting WMU first access in the country to AiRICA and launching a certification program built around it is exactly the kind of thing I was committed to doing when we started this company,” says Harris. “Since my time as a professor in the food industry management program at University of Southern California, it has always been my goal to help develop the knowledge and skills of the next generation of managers in our industry. This gift to the WMU program reflects this long-held commitment of mine.”
An industry-aligned curriculum is what WMU Haworth’s food marketing program is known for, which is why the program is a perfect fit for this gift.
“We wanted this to be a genuine gift to WMU’s food marketing program, and we wanted the program to be first, full stop,” says Julie Beck, Intent Ai’s chief customer officer. “The platform is built as an end-to-end solution that harmonizes multiple data sources into one strategic view and connects that strategy straight through to execution, and Dr. Zwanka and his students will be working in the same agentic AI environment our clients use every day. Pairing that gift with a real training and certification program gives students direct experience with category management in the same way the industry is beginning to use it.”
Practical application and real experiences are key to the food marketing program, with authentic AI use cases ever more important for students getting ready to enter the workforce.
“Our students are finding ways to bring AI into their coursework already, so receiving this gift and being first in the country to put a purpose-built agentic platform like AiRICA directly into the category management classroom is a natural next step,” says Zwanka. “Launching a Next Generation Category Management Training and Certification program around it means our students will graduate with real, credentialed experience in where this discipline is headed and how it is evolving. Once again, WMU’s food marketing program is combining world-class instruction with real-life, experiential learning, a long-held cornerstone of the program—and the reason why we continue to boast 100% job placement in the industry."
Zwanka will lead the initial rollout, working directly with AiRICA in the classroom and gathering feedback to guide how the platform and the new certification program grow across WMU over time.
About the WMU food marketing program
The WMU food marketing program has a long history of collaborating with industry to deliver win-win solutions. Considered a top food marketing program in the world, the faculty ensures that students get the skills that employers cite as critical so they are career-ready:
- 100% of food marketing graduates are working or continuing their education quickly after earning their degree.
- 100% of food marketing graduates participated in Experience-Driven Learning.
- 100% of food marketing graduates felt their education and experiences as a student at WMU prepared them for their profession.
The program hosts the annual WMU Food Marketing Conference that brings nearly 1,000 professionals and students together to learn about trends in the industry.
Learn more about the WMU food marketing program.
About Intent Ai
Intent Ai is the company behind AiRICA, an agentic AI platform that helps retailers and manufacturers turn category management from a static, operational function into a dynamic, AI-enabled growth engine, aligning shelf-level decisions with category strategy. Intent Ai was founded by Dr. Brian Harris, who pioneered the category management discipline, and is led today by a team of retail and consumer packaged goods industry veterans with backgrounds at organizations including Kroger, Kraft Heinz, Procter & Gamble and Dunnhumby. Learn more about Intent Ai.