Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The retail industry is already steeped in the nonstop buzz of artificial intelligence. While hype is high, action is lagging. The time is now to accelerate or be left at the bus stop. Yet the question remains: Is there a real return on investment in AI? A recent Google study, ROI of AI, found that…

I once had a boss I thought was kind of ridiculous. A larger-than-life persona topped off with a pair of ludicrous luxury sneakers. You can imagine my surprise when, six months later, I bought the same pair. Those shoes, which I whimsically tried on following a small windfall at work, were comfortable and looked amazing.…

At the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City earlier this month, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Tony Bacos, chief product and technology officer at Stitch Fix, an online personal styling service. Bacos detailed how Stitch Fix works to target common shopping challenges and change the way consumers discover style recommendations through the utilization…

The way people shop during the holidays has shifted so dramatically that the old idea of a single “peak” moment no longer fits. What used to be a frantic sprint around Black Friday and Cyber Monday has stretched into something slower, more deliberate and, frankly, more interesting. Consumers are buying earlier, using artificial intelligence to…

Retailers have been hearing about “the future of AI” for years, but 2026 is the year it will become operational. Artificial intelligence is quickly moving from being a novelty that consumers test out with curiosity to a tool they turn to for comparisons, deal-finding, and full purchase-path orchestration. In PYMNTS’ 2025 Black Friday survey, 50.3…

Shoppers today encounter ads almost everywhere — from social media feeds and TV commercials to grocery store displays. This creates tremendous opportunities for retail marketers, but also presents a growing challenge. Managing touchpoints across channels such as video, audio, display, and sponsored ads while keeping creatives timely and on-brand has become incredibly complex. Each new…

Payments innovation is no longer about simply adopting artificial intelligence. It’s about pairing intelligent systems with human-in-the-loop accountability so that compliance, context and ethics evolve as quickly as the technology itself. In 2025, AI reshaped payments. In 2026, it will redefine them. Retailers, payment service providers, and the platforms that support them are entering a…

At the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City earlier this month, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Dave Stevens, chief technology officer at Canadian women's fashion house Groupe Dynamite, and Kevin Bass, vice president of professional services at global supply chain technology leader Manhattan Associates. They covered topics such as the impact of agentic artificial…

We’re entering a new phase of commerce, and it’s a big one. Shoppers are starting to hand the work over to artificial intelligence agents. Not just the search or recommendations, but the whole shopping process. Instead of scrolling, filtering and comparing tabs, shoppers will simply tell an AI agent what they want. “Find me a…

At the National Retail Federation Big Show in New York City last week, Editor-in-Chief Joe Keenan interviewed Kelly Pedersen, global retail leader at consulting firm PwC. Pedersen delves into consumer behavior trends that emerged during the 2025 holiday shopping season, particularly highlighting a "say-do gap" where consumers spent more than they initially intended. He discusses…