Introducing Unique AI-Powered Forecasting For Workload Models

24th February 2026

Businesses in the retail or hospitality industry will know that managing costs and making effective resourcing decisions has never been more important.

As employment costs have increased, businesses have carefully reduced deployed hours. But finding a balance that allows companies to continue delivering a great brand execution – as well as a positive customer experience – can become difficult when commercial changes remain.

For ongoing business success, both brand strategy delivery and customer experience are essential. So how do you find that balance?

The key is knowing when you will need people, and planning both the correct skills and number of people to deliver the business’s unique brand experience.

What is the solution?

The best and most accurate way to achieve this goal is by using a bottom-up workload model. 

As the gold-standard for allocating budgets by site, it quantifies how much time and money is needed to complete all the required tasks based on site-specific data. Bottom-up workload models use data such as the number of customers served, the volume of stock items replenished, and the time taken for essential tasks – such as compliance checks and cash accounting – to calculate the hours required for each site.

ReBudget is our powerful, custom-built workload modelling solution that helps businesses create accurate, bottom-up labour budgets tailored to their unique operations.

And now, this tried and trusted tool is partnering with Artificial Intelligence (AI) from specialists, SolvedBy.Ai, to combine industry-leading workload modelling with AI-powered forecasting.

An exclusive partnership with huge budgeting benefits

The unique AI forecasting behind ReBudget offers a new and innovative solution:

• It is powered by the widest range of forecasting algorithms available
• It provides forecasting accuracy you can trust;
  • Bespoke forecasting models built for each organisation – not one-size-fits-all solutions
  • Forecasts automatically test and select the best-performing model every time they run
  • Better handling of seasonality, volatility, and business change through a large number of exogenous data sets
• It supports rapid and consistent scenario planning
• It offers improved time-slot level demand forecasting accuracy to underpin workload modelling

Businesses can benefit from this partnership as:

• It allows for improved forecast accuracy at a granular level, enabling more accurate workload modelling
• You can scenario plan for macro changes, such as the National Living Wage
• You can also scenario plan for business-specific issues such as contract base and recruitment planning
• Data dashboard views are provided
• It offers API to link to workforce management (WFM) tools

Who’s involved in this unique partnership?

ReThink Productivity

As productivity experts, we work with leading retail and hospitality brands, and are passionate about helping businesses improve their operations. 

We have been providing workload models for 15 years, and our custom-built tool, ReBudget, has been designed by retail workload planners for workload planners.

ReBudget Online is our secure cloud-based platform with real-time collaboration, automation and live data view.

Depending on your specific business needs, we provide comprehensive support solutions. These include providing a model that you can run and manage yourself, or offering a fully-managed workload modeling service. ReThink also offers a comprehensive workload model course to upskill people who manage and build workload models, helping to improve their knowledge and confidence.

All of this is with support from our expert workload modelling specialist, Karen Cattermole.

SolvedBy.Ai

SolvedBy.Ai are applied AI specialists focused on workforce, demand, and operational time series forecasting. They develop and deploy AI forecasting models that help organisations plan operations with a high level of accuracy at the level decisions are made; by site, role, task, day, and time period.

Working with retail, hospitality, leisure and manufacturing organisations, SolvedBy.Ai improve forecasting accuracy in environments where demand is variable and cost control is critical. Their approach is technology-agnostic, allowing them to integrate with existing systems and select the most appropriate forecasting methods for each organisation’s context.

Their focus is on practical, explainable AI that complements established planning and workload modelling methodologies, ensuring forecasts are understood, trusted, and actionable.

More about the partnership

Through this partnership, the specialisms of both ReThink Productivity and SolvedBy.Ai are combined to enhance ReBudget with AI-powered forecasting.

By merging industry-leading bottom-up workload modelling with adaptive AI demand forecasting, businesses will have more confidence in obtaining accurate budgeting, with the ability to make resourcing decisions at a site and timeslot level.

Simon Hedaux, Co-Founder of ReThink Productivity

“By integrating SolvedBy.Ai’s cutting-edge intelligence with our ReBudget solution, we aren’t just improving numbers; we are fundamentally changing how businesses approach their workforce. This partnership allows us to move beyond simple forecasting, and unlock true strategic workforce planning.”

Ed Hogg, CEO, SolvedBy.Ai

“Partnering with ReThink allows us to apply our exceptional AI forecasting capabilities directly within their ReBudget workload modelling framework. Together, we are enabling organisations to generate labour budgets that reflect site-level demand patterns, seasonality, and real operational volatility, supporting more informed planning.”

Discover more about what this partnership means for your business by contacting our team today.