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In retail, artificial intelligence (AI) is reinventing how people shop, how businesses operate and how employees work. It’s happening all at the same time, and it’s happening fast.
Artificial intelligence (AI) and its expanding role in retail was the focus of the National Retail Federation’s (NRF) 2026 ‘Big Show’ in New York City this week.
In his opening remarks, NRF Board Chair Bob Eddy painted a picture of an industry that, despite challenges and disruption, continues to move forward with extraordinary strength and resilience.
“Retail is a stabilizing force in people’s lives,” Eddy emphasized, highlighting how the industry delivers value and relief in times of crisis. It also supports more than one in four American jobs. This foundation of stability, he emphasized, provides a launchpad for innovation and growth.
Eddy’s declaration that “What’s happening next is happening now” perfectly captured the show’s “now, next” theme, with particular emphasis on scaling AI to drive growth. “When technology accelerates innovation, we get new ideas,” Eddy noted, urging attendees to “think about what’s next, and not only what’s new.”
Collaboration is key
On the show floor, the focus of conversation shifted away from early-stage AI tools like chatbots and virtual assistants, toward more sophisticated systems that automate decisions about the running of stores and e-commerce operations.
Retailers were keen to showcase their technological innovation in 2026, whether by teaming up with external tech companies that operate popular AI chatbots to building AI agents within their own organisations.
While there were many new initiatives unveiled throughout the three-day event, company executives emphasized the importance of working with partners is necessary as AI continues to quickly reshape the industry.
One of the biggest reveals at NRF came from Walmart, who announced that shoppers will be able to purchase Walmart and Sam’s Club products through Google’s AI assistant, Gemini. The retailer’s new experience lets AI agents shop across online stores and arrange quick and convenient delivery for in-store and club items.
The era of agentic commerce
Early discussions about AI in retail focused mainly on increasing efficiency, such as optimizing specific tasks or enhancing recommendations and forecasts.
Now we’re on the cusp of an agentic commerce era, where AI moves to becoming a system that predicts outcomes and carries out complex, multi-step, prescriptive actions throughout the customer shopping journey.
AI agents are increasingly improving at addressing customer problems and we started to see this play out during the 2025 holiday shopping season.
According to a Salesforce report, AI agents handled 142% more tasks and saw a 126% increase in customer service use during the holiday season compared to the prior two months.
AI agents improving how work gets done
It is easy to see the value of agentic AI systems that make decisions on their own and complete tasks independently are clear.
One such example on the show floor at NRF was Profitmind, a retail technology company that developed an agentic AI platform to help retail merchants automate decisions across pricing, inventory and planning. Using intelligent AI agents, the platform blends machine learning, generative AI (gen AI) and agentic AI to help retail teams make faster, more profitable decisions, connect pricing, inventory, promotions, and assortment data into clear, prioritized recommendations that can be executed with speed.
In the food space, Papa Johns announced that using Google Cloud’s Food Ordering agent, which is helping the pizza brand deploy a fully unified voice and text AI ordering system aimed at removing friction across customer touchpoints.
Moving beyond its initial success in drive-thru automation, Food Ordering agent is a comprehensive omnichannel platform that enables brands to deploy high-quality voice AI agents across mobile apps, websites, telephones, kiosks, and in-car systems.
AI adding to the customer journey
The rapid uptake of Gen AI tools in consumers’ everyday lives is making its mark on the shop floor. Two-thirds of consumers now use Gen AI, and the same proportion of frontline retail workers recognize its potential to enhance their work experience, according to Accenture research.
As AI tools improve, shoppers can access real-time data, reviews, and competitive pricing—often faster than store employees—which can make it challenging for retailers to keep up.
As more retailers look to integrate AI into their businesses, finding a way to resonate with customers and stand out from the competition, is something REI CEO, Mary Beth Laughton touched on at NRF.
While Laughton believes AI will “touch every aspect of our retail journey and our retail business,” she believes the human connection will be the differentiator.
“AI can be really fast. It can be really effective. It’s super smart, but the thing it can’t do is really that lived experience in the outdoors. It hasn’t gone hiking. It hasn’t gone camping.”
Laughton emphasized the importance of REI’s green vests who she believes are more than just in-store associates, they’re “trusted guides” who have been camping, who enjoy the outdoors, can share experiences and advice, while also providing services like backpack fittings.
So popular are the green vests, that the retailer featured them in the most recent holiday campaign, where they recommended what products to buy as gifts. It’s now looking to extend its green vests beyond stores to the digital experience, for example, integrating associates into its online product pages through testimonials or videos. The result? Increased conversion rates, according to Laughton.
What’s next?
Retail’s AI reinvention is underway. While innovation remains important, the focus has moved to execution, scalability, and tangible outcomes, where real value is being created. As retailers prepare for what’s next, the winners will be those who chose to get moving and invest responsibly in the technology, while also rethinking how works gets done, and most importantly, always keeping their people at the center.
Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/jillstandish/2026/01/16/ai-takes-center-stage-at-nrf/
