What Will AI Bring to Retail at NRF?
In January the biggest names in retail will be making a case for change in supply chain, consumer experience, and the bottom line. With 95% of companies claiming investment in AI in 2026, who are the frontrunners? It's prediction season, read on for our top three takeaways.
The quick and dirty - multimodal systems, on-premise consumer interaction, and security are the differentiators for AI this year.
Top Three Predictions:
01
Appetite for AI integration in Consumer Facing Store Operations is Low. Altering consumer purchase patterns is scary. Behind the scenes, Amazon has Covariant. Walmart is deploying Willot sensors. But what about when AI actually effects merchant services? Stripe, Toast, and LightSpeed are using AI for customer support, fraud, and consumer personalization. On-premise automated transaction and delivery is largely untouched and where many companies will be making a big play to impact throughput and labor.
02
The biggest gains are when multimodal AI systems work together. Real world AI results are showing up in cohesive solutions that both see and understand the world around them. Combining a general purpose LLM with specialized and fine-tuned computer vision models are delivering a two pronged approach to detection plus reporting for inventory, loss prevention, and checkout.
03
Privacy, Auditibility, and Security are differentiators. Consumer trust is very much a hot button topic, and the latest Tracxn report cited 708 AI companies entering the market in 2025. From pilot to scale depends on regulatry compliance, especially for global enterprise adoption. Who has it and who doesn't is going to be a big selling point.
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