AI Manuals: How Accesa and MediaMarktSaturn Redefined Retail Support

DÜSSELDORF, Germany – February 24, 2026 – In a move that signals a significant evolution in retail customer service, technology firm Accesa and consumer electronics giant MediaMarktSaturn have been jointly awarded the prestigious 'Top Supplier Retail 2026'. The award, presented in the highly competitive Customer Experience category, recognizes their groundbreaking 'Interactive User Manual'—a Generative AI solution poised to make the dense, often-ignored paper instruction booklet a relic of the past.

Presented by the esteemed EHI Retail Institute and Lebensmittel Zeitung, the award highlights innovations that deliver tangible and measurable impact within the retail sector. The winning solution transforms static product guides into a dynamic, 24/7 conversational assistant, directly addressing one of the most common points of friction in the post-purchase customer journey. This recognition not only validates a single project but also casts a spotlight on the power of long-term strategic partnerships in driving industry-wide change.

From Static Pages to Dynamic Dialogue

For decades, the consumer experience with a new product has begun with a familiar ritual: unboxing the device and setting aside a thick, multi-language manual filled with dense diagrams and technical jargon. The 'Interactive User Manual' directly challenges this outdated paradigm. By scanning a simple QR code on the product or its packaging, customers gain immediate access to a product-specific chatbot designed to provide clear, solution-oriented answers.

The GenAI-powered tool currently supports over 2,000 private-label products from MediaMarktSaturn's portfolio, including its brands KOENIC, PEAQ, ISY, and ok. In its first four months of operation, the system has already handled more than 10,000 user requests, a figure that demonstrates a clear consumer appetite for more intuitive and accessible support. Whether a customer needs help with initial setup, troubleshooting a specific feature, or understanding maintenance requirements, the chatbot provides instant guidance.

“The idea was to create a product-specific chatbot based on the exact documents related to each product, helping customers properly understand and experience it in the way we intended,” explained Stefan Ploch, Expert Quality Management at Imtron, the MediaMarktSaturn subsidiary responsible for its private label brands. “By launching this chatbot, we’re not only making one customer happy, but we’re also able to support customers across thousands of products.”

A critical element of the solution's success is its disciplined approach to data. The AI model is built exclusively on official product documentation and internal, verified knowledge bases. This 'closed-loop' system ensures the information provided is consistently accurate and reliable, effectively sidestepping the risk of AI 'hallucinations'—a common pitfall where AI models generate plausible but incorrect information. This focus on precision builds consumer trust and ensures the tool is a genuinely helpful resource rather than a potential source of confusion.

The Power of a Decade-Long Partnership

This award-winning innovation was not the product of a short-term project but the culmination of a strategic partnership between Accesa and MediaMarktSaturn that spans more than a decade. This long-standing collaboration fostered the deep mutual understanding and trust necessary to tackle complex challenges and co-create a solution with the potential to scale across markets, brands, and use cases.

Such long-term relationships are becoming increasingly critical in an era of rapid digital transformation. They allow technology partners to move beyond a simple vendor role and act as integrated strategic advisors, gaining profound insight into a retailer's operational challenges, competitive landscape, and customer pain points. This deep-seated knowledge enabled Accesa to develop a solution that was not just technologically advanced but also perfectly aligned with MediaMarktSaturn's business objectives.

“We are proud to receive this award with MediaMarktSaturn. It reflects the strength of our long-term partnership and our shared vision to make technology truly useful for customers,” said Gabriel Sobolu, a Managing Director and CTO at Accesa. “At Accesa, we focus on solving real challenges with AI, and it’s rewarding to see these solutions drive tangible impact in retail.”

The project serves as a powerful case study for how sustained collaboration can yield far greater results than transactional, project-based engagements. By investing in a long-term vision, both companies were able to create a platform that not only solves an immediate problem but also provides a foundation for future innovations in customer engagement.

A New Standard for Customer Experience

The 'Top Supplier Retail' award, derived from the EHI Retail Institute's internationally recognized 'reta awards', is more than just an accolade; it is a benchmark for excellence in retail technology. The jury, comprising international experts from industry and academia, evaluates projects based on their degree of innovation and demonstrable strategic value. The victory for Accesa and MediaMarktSaturn in the 'Best Customer Experience' category validates their approach as a new industry standard.

This implementation of Generative AI showcases a mature and practical application of the technology. While much of the conversation around AI has focused on public-facing, general-purpose models, this solution demonstrates the immense value of training specialized AI on curated, high-quality data for a specific business purpose. It enhances the customer experience by reducing frustration, empowers consumers with instant knowledge, and simultaneously drives operational efficiency by automating a significant portion of routine support queries. This allows human customer service agents to focus their expertise on more complex and nuanced issues, elevating the overall quality of support.

The success of the 'Interactive User Manual' offers a blueprint for other retailers and consumer goods companies. It proves that AI can be deployed in a responsible, controlled, and highly effective manner to improve the entire product lifecycle, from pre-purchase inquiries to post-purchase support. As consumers grow accustomed to this level of instant, accurate assistance for their electronics, expectations will inevitably rise across all product categories, pressuring other brands to innovate beyond the traditional printed manual and embrace a more interactive, on-demand future.