But despite the seemingly endless AI mentions from retailers in 2025, the industry is falling behind others. There was no shortage of AI-related announcements from retailers in 2025. It was researched, designed, and written by human writers, editors, analysts, and illustrators. According to BCG’s AI Radar (a global survey of 2,400 business executives), four out of five CEOs are more optimistic about the ROI of their AI investments than they were a year ago and nearly all CEOs believe that AI agents will produce measurable returns in 2026. Retailers that hesitate on this investment risk falling further behind eTailers and brands already scaling AI adoption at pace. There is also potential for these organisations to scale their businesses in the near term while keeping FTEs consistent.

• The tool can make recommendations based on various preferences, including price limits.
• The tool uses AI to create an image of a client’s likeness wearing shoppable outfits, helping them decide on products.
• Retailers must protect the integrity of their AI models, training data, interaction interfaces and agentic tools against threats like prompt injection, data poisoning and others.
• Three strategic capability stacks – merchandising, customer growth and digital activation, and technology – will account for around 70% of above-store employee costs for destination retailers (Exhibit 3).
• For consumers, the company added an « Interests » feature to a small subset of U.S. app and mobile users, allowing shoppers to enter prompts into the AI-backed tool to receive products recommendations.

On the other hand, evaluation retailers – those that rely on traffic from AI platforms – will face margin pressure as they compete on cost, fulfilment speed and agent visibility, with margin increasingly skewed toward a small set of scale and specialist winners. E-commerce marketplace company eBay joined the list of companies that launched an AI tool for sellers to build out product listings. Musical instruments retailer Guitar Center debuted an in-store AI shopping assistant called Rig Advisor that customers access through a QR code. The retailer has utilized the technology internally to speed up merchandise ideation and review applications for third-party marketplace sellers. Three strategic capability stacks – merchandising, customer growth and digital activation, and technology – will account for around 70% of above-store employee costs for destination retailers (Exhibit 3).

The tool can make recommendations based on various preferences, including price limits. Consumers can also use it to ask for product recommendations. The moves feed into a larger, centralized “super agent” strategy from Walmart that integrates similar technology across the business. Here’s a list of companies that made concrete generative AI https://www.firstsign.us/5-key-takeaways-on-the-road-to-dominating-12 announcements throughout the year. Specifically on Cyber Monday, AI traffic to U.S. retail sites grew 670%.

Tractor Supply taps former Home Depot exec as chief technology, digital officer

We are built for this era of unprecedented change — bringing strategic clarity rooted in over 60 years of deep domain knowledge, combined with applied AI shaped by our practitioners. Boston Consulting Group bridges the gap between ambition and outcomes for the world’s leading companies and organizations. This is the year to define your AI endgame, commit to an investment plan and kick off end-to-end operating model redesign. Financial returns will play out over a 3–5-year horizon as workflows and systems modernise and adoption grows. Returns extend far beyond cost and productivity with impacts on accelerated decision-making, innovation and growth. The biggest value comes from widespread adoption which starts with people.

Agentic commerce: The infrastructure is ready for AI agents. Is your store?

• BITO Storage Systems is promising to “turn storage ideas into reality” at IMHX 2025, but the retail world may be looking for more than…
• Financial returns will play out over a 3–5-year horizon as workflows and systems modernise and adoption grows.
• The free tool, called Pearl Planner, features an AI assistant, registry integration and vendor recommendations.
• This website is owned and operated by Informa TechTarget, a global network that informs, influences and connects the world’s technology buyers and sellers.
• “It’s still a very small base,” Nikki Baird, vice president of strategy and product at retail technology provider Aptos, told Retail Dive.
• Lasting impact and a truly AI-enabled operating model require the largest workforce shift since the introduction of the personal computer, multiyear investment in re-skilling, real-time data, human-AI workflows, platform modernisation and application development.

Retail may https://onlinedelhi.info/business_contact_details/218/Centre-for-Retail-Management/index.htm be lagging behind other industries in the adoption of artificial intelligence, but 2025 was still transformative. An Informa PLC company. By signing up to receive our newsletter, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

In parallel, retailers must rapidly lift the AI fluency of their organisation. To keep up with customers, manufacturers and eTailers, they will need to fundamentally reshape how they work, with AI at the heart – not just as a tool to plug in. Within a store, customers will seek out confidence, service and fulfilment. The functionality uses a photo and title provided by sellers to then generate AI-powered product details and categories. The executive hinted at the potential for further agentic AI integrations in the near future.

Organisational Capabilities: Leaner, Smarter and More Strategic Organisations

Etsy also debuted new AI-powered tools for sellers to support tasks such as naming listing titles. Walmart launched a generative AI assistant for merchants called Wally that helps with tasks such as data entry and advanced calculations. AI tools that may have been used were limited to secondary production processes that passed thorough human review. In parallel, digital, IT and AI operating expenditure is set to increase by at least one third as retailers fund subscription AI platforms, cloud computing, model operations, cybersecurity and enterprise-wide reskilling. And less will flow to store fit outs and hardware as retailers look to lighter maintenance and selective upgrades focused on safety, loss prevention and targeted task-level automation (Exhibit 4).