Knowelle

We’ll expand Knowelle’s database over time, but currently, it includes documents in IFDA’s research portfolio, including:
• Compensation data for salaried personnel, warehouse workers, and drivers
• Financial benchmarking data
• Operations benchmarking data
• Technology use benchmarking
• Industry employee demographics
• Research on the preferences and expectations younger workers have for jobs
• Warehouse ergonomics  
• Monthly macro-economic trends
• Foodservice distribution industry’s physical and economic footprint
• General info on industry innovation, e-commerce, and basics of AI opportunities
• Warehouse technology basics
• Cybersecurity basics
 
Knowelle also draws data via API for select government data, including:
• National employment from BLS
• Food Services & Drinking Place monthly sales from the U.S. Census
• Producer Price Index for wholesale food from the U.S. Census
 
In addition, Knowelle provides results from a general internet search for your questions. These are identified as internet results and can be viewed by clicking the “See what the internet says” button below Knowelle’s answer to your question.

We’re working on equipping Knowelle with additional capabilities and features, and she’s currently limited in a few ways. Knowelle can:
• Only produce responses based on information in her database at any given time.
• Not elaborate on previous responses as she doesn’t have a “memory.”
• Partially produce responses with details from multiple sources but not combine information from every relevant source in her database.
• Not incorporate external data from the internet into responses.

In addition, Knowelle will not provide answers to questions related to legal guidance, regulatory compliance, and other highly nuanced topics, for which 100% accuracy is critical. Like any generative AI tool, Knowelle may return incomplete or inaccurate responses.

Knowelle’s database is not connected to the internet at large, and therefore, it cannot incorporate general information into answers. However, for each question that generates a response, there is an option to see what a general internet search produces. Please note that the internet-generated links are not IFDA- or industry-specific, and IFDA cannot guarantee relevance or accuracy. You can see the internet results by clicking on the “See how the internet compares” menu underneath Knowelle’s response.

If you’re unsure of what to ask, click on one of the trending questions asked by others on the top right of the screen. You can explore these to get examples of how Knowelle works.

As a Large Language Model (LLM) search engine, Knowelle understands a good deal of language but does best when asked targeted questions. If you receive a response saying there isn’t enough information in the database to answer your question, you can try:
• If your original question is very broad, try narrowing it.
• If your question is very narrow, try broadening it.
• If your question uses industry-specific terminology, try using more mainstream terminology.
• If your question includes a term like “current,” “today,” or “recently,” try using a year.

For each response Knowelle is able to provide, she cites the related documents where she found the information in the window on the right-hand side of the screen. Click on the source to see the full research report. You can download it or print it. If it cites a document but you can’t click on it, that means the source is only free to companies that participated in that survey; such sources include the latest compensation and benchmarking reports.

IFDA retains anonymized user data entered into Knowelle, including user prompts, metadata, and feedback. This data is stored securely and used to enhance the performance and accuracy of our services.