Ask Your Shop Anything
Rai is an assistant that knows your business. Ask it a question the way you would ask your accountant - in English, Kiswahili or Sheng, on WhatsApp - and it answers from your own sales, stock and payments. No reports to build, no formulas, no waiting for month-end.
“Rai” is Kiswahili for advice or counsel - which is exactly the job. It turns the numbers your shop already produces into answers you can act on.
An illustration of how Rai answers. It asks before it does anything - the order is only drafted if you say so.
In One Sentence
Think of Rai as a very fast, very patient business analyst who has read every sale, every delivery, every payment and every customer account in your shop - and never forgets any of it.
You ask in your own words
No menus to learn and no report builder. “Which branch sold the most cement last month?” gets you the number, not a training course.
You get a real answer
A table and a chart you can save, print or send to your accountant - and rerun next month without asking again.
And advice you can act on
Not “sales are down” but “these 12 items have not sold in 90 days and are holding KES 340,000 - clear them.” Always with the figures it used.
Things You Can Just Ask
No special wording. Type it the way you would say it to a person - in English, Kiswahili or Sheng.
Every answer comes back as a figure you can check, a table you can save, and - when it matters - a chart. Save any question and rerun it next month without asking again.
And Four Things You Never Have To Ask For
Rai writes to you on its own - every morning, every Monday, every month and at the end of your year. Not the same summary four times: each one answers the question you can only answer over that stretch of time.
Your day
Every morningWhat happened yesterday, and what needs doing before the shop fills up.
- Yesterday’s takings, by branch and by person
- What is about to run out today
- Who owes you and who went late overnight
- The three things to do first
“Sales up 12% on last Tuesday. Routers and CCTV cameras are low - reorder today. KES 340k overdue across 2 accounts; Zima is now 40 days late.”
Your week
Every MondayWhether the week was really better than the one before it - and which day made it so.
- This week against last week, and the same week last year
- Which branches, sellers and days carried it
- What sold out mid-week, and what it cost you
- Debt that aged past 30, 60 and 90 days
“Last week beat the one before by 8%, all of it on Friday. Mombasa slipped for the third week running. Two fast-movers ran out mid-week and cost you about KES 62,000 in sales you could have made.”
Your month
The first of the monthWhether you actually made money - not just whether you sold a lot.
- Sales, gross margin and what changed in both
- Your best and worst lines, by profit rather than volume
- Stock sitting still, and the cash tied up in it
- Your VAT position and what you owe suppliers
“July: sales up 6%, but margin down 1.4 points - the drop is all in cable, where you discounted 22 times. KES 410,000 is sitting in stock that has not moved in 90 days.”
Your year
After your year closesWhat the year actually did, and what to plan differently in the next one.
- The year against the one before, month by month
- Your seasons - when you are busy, when you tie up cash
- Which branches, staff, suppliers and lines earned their keep
- What to stock, hire and borrow for next year
“2026 finished 19% up on 2025, with November and December carrying a third of it. Kisumu grew fastest; Nakuru has not grown in two years. Solar earned more profit than phones on half the turnover.”
Each one arrives on WhatsApp or by email, in the language you chose, and every figure in it can be opened and checked. You pick which ones you want and who else gets them.
Why You Can Trust The Answer
An AI that hands you a confidently wrong number is worse than no AI at all. Three things stop that from happening.
It does not guess
Rai answers using a fixed set of business measures - sales, margin, stock cover, who owes what - that our team built and checked against your system. It does not invent its own way of counting your money. On the rare question those measures do not cover, it shows you exactly how it worked the answer out.
Your data stays on your own system
Rai works out what to look up; your own server does the looking up and sends back only the answer - “sales by item last month” - never your customer list or your ledger. Nothing about who your customers are leaves your shop.
It asks before it changes anything
Rai reads freely but never writes on its own. When it wants to raise a purchase order or record a supplier invoice, it drafts it and waits for you to tap approve. Every question it was asked and every action taken is logged.
Where Rai Pays For Itself
The four things shop owners feel first - each one turns numbers you already have into money kept or made.
Demand Forecasting & Auto-Reorder
AI learns each item’s real sell-through - including seasonality - and tells you what to reorder, how many, and when, before you stock out or overbuy.
For example — It notices your Hikvision 4-channel DVR kits sell about 35% faster from October and flags a reorder of 48 units three weeks before you’d run dry - dropped straight onto the Hikvision order list.
Demand forecast
Hikvision 4-Ch DVR Kit
Credit-Risk Radar
Before you extend a new LPO, AI scores how that account actually pays - so credit goes to customers who settle, not ones who stall.
For example — Zima Networks Ltd averages 41 days to pay and already has KES 380k overdue; AI warns you before you approve their next KES 500k order on credit.
Credit-risk radar
Zima Networks Ltd · new LPO
Avg. pays in
41 days
Already overdue
KES 380k
Margin & Price Guard
AI watches the margin on every line and warns you the moment discounting quietly eats your profit - with a suggested floor price per item.
For example — A seller keeps dropping solar inverters to KES 18,000; AI flags that it’s KES 1,200 under your target margin and suggests holding at KES 19,500.
Margin guard
3kW Hybrid Solar Inverter
Import & Landed-Cost Prediction
For dealers who import, AI learns your real landed cost - freight, duty, forex - and predicts the true cost of the next shipment so you price it right from day one.
For example — AI compares your last six Tecno imports and predicts the next container lands at KES 14,850 a unit after duty and shipping - so you set shelf prices before the stock arrives.
Landed-cost forecast
Next Tecno shipment
Everything Rai Does, With A Real Example
Rai is being built into UpeoRetail one capability at a time, on top of the data the system already keeps. Here is what each one does for you - with a real example from a shop’s day.
Sell More, Guess Less
AI that reads demand, protects your margin and tells you which account to call next.
Demand Forecasting & Auto-Reorder
AI learns each item’s real sell-through - including seasonality - and tells you what to reorder, how many, and when, before you stock out or overbuy.
It notices your Hikvision 4-channel DVR kits sell about 35% faster from October and flags a reorder of 48 units three weeks before you’d run dry - dropped straight onto the Hikvision order list.
Margin & Price Guard
AI watches the margin on every line and warns you the moment discounting quietly eats your profit - with a suggested floor price per item.
A seller keeps dropping solar inverters to KES 18,000; AI flags that it’s KES 1,200 under your target margin and suggests holding at KES 19,500.
Next-Order Prediction
AI spots each corporate’s buying rhythm and reminds you to reach out right before they reorder - with the exact kit they buy.
A university buys ~20 desktops every January; in mid-December AI reminds you to send them a quote before a competitor gets the order.
Get Paid, Manage Risk
AI that scores who really pays, sees the cash squeeze coming and matches messy payments.
Credit-Risk Radar
Before you extend a new LPO, AI scores how that account actually pays - so credit goes to customers who settle, not ones who stall.
Zima Networks Ltd averages 41 days to pay and already has KES 380k overdue; AI warns you before you approve their next KES 500k order on credit.
Cash-Flow Forecast
AI projects the cash coming in from receivables against what’s going out to suppliers, so you see a squeeze weeks ahead - not on the day.
With KES 1.2M of supplier bills due on the 30th and only KES 800k expected in, AI flags the shortfall now and points you at the two overdue accounts to chase.
Smart Payment Matching
AI matches messy M-Pesa and bank payments to the right invoice - even when the reference is wrong, partial or missing.
A customer pays by paybill with a mistyped account number; AI still links it to the right open invoice by amount, phone and timing, and hands you a one-tap confirm.
Buy Smart
AI that knows your true landed cost and which supplier actually serves you best.
Import & Landed-Cost Prediction
For dealers who import, AI learns your real landed cost - freight, duty, forex - and predicts the true cost of the next shipment so you price it right from day one.
AI compares your last six Tecno imports and predicts the next container lands at KES 14,850 a unit after duty and shipping - so you set shelf prices before the stock arrives.
Supplier Intelligence
AI tells you which supplier truly serves you best per item - weighing price, delivery speed and short-shipping, not just the quoted price.
For 1TB SSDs, AI shows Supplier A is 4% cheaper but delivers 9 days slower and short-ships one order in five - so it recommends Supplier B for your fast-movers.
Warranty & Faulty-Batch Watch
For dealers in electronics and machinery: Rai tracks which units are still under warranty and notices when returns start clustering around one supplier’s batch.
Five of the last seven returned inverters came from the same February delivery - Rai spots the pattern and tells you to take it up with that supplier.
Run A Tight Ship
AI that watches for leaks, briefs you on your day, week, month and year, and answers questions in plain language.
Anomaly & Shrinkage Detection
AI learns what normal looks like for each seller and branch and flags the unusual - excess voids, odd discounts, stock that doesn’t add up.
One seller voids three times more sales than peers, always just after a cash sale; AI surfaces the pattern for you to review instead of it hiding in the logs.
Your Briefing - Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Yearly
Rai writes you a plain-English summary of the business without being asked: your day every morning, your week every Monday, your month on the first, and your year when it closes. Each answers what only that stretch of time can.
“Sales up 12% vs last Tuesday. Routers and CCTV cameras are low - reorder today. KES 340k overdue across 2 accounts; Zima is now 40 days late.” Then on Monday: “Last week beat the one before by 8%, all of it on Friday. Mombasa slipped for the third week running.”
Ask Your Business Anything
Ask Rai a question in plain language - on WhatsApp or in the app - and get the answer straight from your live data, no report-building.
Type “which branch sold the most solar panels last month, and what was my profit on them?” and get the number back instantly.
Rai On WhatsApp
Rai comes to where you already are. Ask from the same app you use all day, and get your briefs and your alerts there too - no login, no laptop.
Stuck in traffic, you message “how are we doing today?” and get today’s takings by branch before you reach the shop.
English, Kiswahili Or Sheng
Ask in the language you actually think in. Rai understands all three and answers back the same way.
“Nionyeshe bidhaa zinazoisha wiki hii” returns the same stock-out list as the English question.
Alerts The Moment Something Breaks
Your briefs tell you about the day, the week, the month and the year. Alerts tell you about the minute - a fast-mover about to stock out, a supplier’s price jumping, a till that does not balance.
At 2pm Rai messages you that the cash drawer at Nakuru is KES 4,300 short of what was rung through - while the shift is still on.
Nothing Changes Without Your Approval
Rai can prepare work for you - a purchase order, a supplier invoice read off a photo - but it is never allowed to save anything itself. You approve, and it is logged.
It drafts a 48-unit order to your usual supplier for a line about to run dry; you check it and tap approve, or change it first.
Snap-To-Stock Invoice Capture
Photograph a supplier’s invoice or delivery note and AI reads it - items, quantities, cost prices - then drafts the purchase and cost updates for you to approve.
You snap a distributor’s invoice with 30 line items; AI drafts the goods-receipt and updates each item’s cost price in seconds instead of an hour of typing.
Rai only works because the shop is already in one system
UpeoRetail runs your whole business from one place: point of sale, live stock across every branch, procurement split per supplier, credit and LPOs for your business customers, M-Pesa reconciled to the shilling and a VAT tax invoice on every sale - and it keeps working offline. On top of that live data sits Rai, an AI assistant you can simply ask questions - turning everyday trading into decisions: what to stock, who to trust with credit, what to charge, and where money is quietly leaking.
- Every sale, in every branch, with the person who made it
- Live stock, moved by every sale and every transfer
- Who owes you what, and how long they have taken to pay before
- What you paid each supplier, and what it really cost you landed
That is the record Rai reads. The more of your shop runs through UpeoRetail, the sharper every answer gets - and you can see the kind of thing it works from in the daily trading report.
Questions People Ask About Rai
Plain answers, including the two everybody asks: can it be wrong, and can it break something.
Rai is an AI assistant built into UpeoRetail that answers questions about your own business in plain language. You ask - by typing in the app or messaging on WhatsApp - and it replies with a real answer drawn from your sales, stock, customers and payments. The name is Kiswahili for advice or counsel.
Put Rai In Your Shop
Book a demo and we will show you, on your own numbers, exactly what Rai would tell you about your business today.