receive, by an item identification module, a notification indicating an order and a first item identifier;

based on the first item identifier, identify, by an item similarity module, a set of substitute item identifiers, each substitute item identifier of the set of substitute item identifiers including a similarity score determined by an optimization computation including at least a minimax decision algorithm, wherein the similarity score is updated by at least a substitution acceptance rate, and wherein the similarity score and the substitution acceptance rate value are stored in a database;

determine a lower bound for the similarity score of each of the substitute item identifiers in the set of substitute item identifiers by implementing a constrained linear programming based on at least a maximum exploration factor;

determine a probability value for each of the substitute item identifiers of the set of substitute item identifiers based on the lower bound, a value of corresponding items, the similarity score, and the substitution acceptance rate;

based on the probability values and the similarity score corresponding to the set of substitute item identifiers, select a first substitute item identifier of the set of substitute item identifiers;

transmit, to an analyst device, instructions causing generation of a user interface including the first substitute item identifier and the first item identifier;

receive, from the analyst device, an indication the of approval for the first substitute item identifier; and

in response to receiving the indication of approval, update the order to include the first substitute item identifier and exclude the first item identifier.