Latest / The Retail Podcast / NRF 2026 AI, Culture & the Future of Retail | Five Things Friday USA

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NRF 2026 AI, Culture & the Future of Retail | Five Things Friday USA · The Retail Podcast

• 0:00
  Hello and welcome to Five Things Friday.
• 0:02
  We're the fabulous Jill. She's still standing.
• 0:17
  She's still. It was I'm.
• 0:18
  Still. Anyway.
• 0:20
  Still standard. This is the third day.
• 0:22
  Being propped up, yeah. If we take away the banner with.
• 0:25
  Freaking to Bernie's right. Now, and to be fair, I've got
• 0:27
  nothing to complain about, Jill. This has been an incredible
• 0:30
  show. Content has been off the charts,
• 0:33
  really, really good. Not just saying that because I
• 0:35
  would say you. Would I Would.
• 0:37
  Last year I didn't like how it started.
• 0:39
  I loved how it finished. Yep, right.
• 0:41
  This year, off the bat, straight off, you know, really strong,
• 0:45
  Google, Walmart, it was just like a list of, you know, Dick's
• 0:49
  Sporting Goods. Fanatics, you.
• 0:51
  Don't want to hear my view on the show.
• 0:54
  Jill, tell us what are the key moments for you as we it's it's
• 0:58
  like we're almost at the end almost.
• 0:59
  And it's really sad because they like you get that sort of.
• 1:02
  Now what? Now another year, honestly, I
• 1:05
  mean, I I'm doing our closing in just a few minutes, you know, a
• 1:09
  couple hours upstairs on the keynote stage and it is, it's
• 1:11
  our biggest show ever, 41,000 attendees.
• 1:14
  Wow, more than a 1000 exhibitors, we had more than 550
• 1:18
  sessions in three. This is just in three days.
• 1:22
  So it is it's both a marathon and a Sprint.
• 1:25
  You get into it thinking this is a marathon, don't you know,
• 1:28
  don't go too fast. But honestly, by day one, when
• 1:31
  it ends, you're like, Oh my God, it's not enough.
• 1:33
  I need more time. So I will say, I mean, we have
• 1:35
  100 countries represented here. So really global amount of
• 1:40
  conversation, really, really similar conversations that
• 1:45
  everyone's having. So you know, kind of the themes
• 1:47
  that we put forward in content and we're hearing from a lot of
• 1:50
  the exhibitors on the floor, all the different stages.
• 1:53
  Customer relevance is more important than ever.
• 1:55
  And the way to get it is really it's kind of that that niche is
• 2:01
  it, is it the next generation? Is it where, where are they
• 2:04
  connecting with others is being there?
• 2:06
  So that's kind of the first piece.
• 2:07
  There's not A1 size fits all. It's not everybody go on this
• 2:10
  platform or everyone go on that platform.
• 2:12
  It's really figuring out and diving into it.
• 2:15
  Gary Vee this morning, morning, you know, opened up the show by
• 2:17
  talking about, you know, really attention.
• 2:20
  We're in a warfare. And all of these books are about
• 2:23
  right. The attention economy, right?
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  And he's phenomenal at it. So, so great.
• 2:27
  And, you know, we really brought him to the stage to push the
• 2:30
  audience, you know, and you can be pushed the first day, but to
• 2:33
  be pushed in the last day as you're going home and you're
• 2:35
  thinking about like, what do I want to bring home?
• 2:37
  What do I want to remember for next year is like, you have to
• 2:40
  think differently to match what your customer wants.
• 2:44
  And sometimes they don't know that they'll tell you one thing
• 2:47
  and they do another. So I thought his kind of
• 2:50
  thinking through of how to do that was phenomenal.
• 2:53
  Obviously, I'd be remiss if I don't talk about AIAI is
• 2:56
  everywhere. We had a separate stage for it,
• 2:58
  but it's the conversation has shifted from last year about
• 3:00
  just that being a buzzword. Now it's where is AI in your
• 3:04
  system? Where is AI on your on your
• 3:06
  store floor? Is it with your, you know, store
• 3:09
  associates? Where are you using it?
• 3:11
  And then what are you measuring and what is showing up?
• 3:15
  So not all all the metrics are going to be the same as what
• 3:17
  you've measured before. But failing fast, trying
• 3:21
  something quick, failing if it doesn't work, iterate, iterate
• 3:24
  quickly and move. But not trying anything honestly
• 3:27
  seems to be the theme of like, you might not be here in a few
• 3:30
  years if you're not really trying something.
• 3:33
  From an efficiency sake, a cost savings perspective, it doesn't
• 3:36
  always have to be revenue. It can be a lot of the cost
• 3:38
  savings. And that's where a tonne of the
• 3:40
  brands that I talked to are seeing the best results.
• 3:42
  I think people are still nervous because no one wants to be the
• 3:46
  we. We've used AI to reduce
• 3:47
  headcount but. Absolutely.
• 3:49
  I have to be honest, it's the first year where it has been
• 3:51
  positioned. Agents could potentially provide
• 3:54
  up to 30% improvement on margin. Yeah, you know, not that you're
• 3:57
  going to get rid of your staff, but maybe you're not recruiting
• 3:59
  as much. You have what?
• 4:00
  You're going to augment what they have, right?
• 4:03
  So you're going to make them more efficient.
• 4:05
  You know, we heard a whole pre but.
• 4:06
  That's the first time that compensation is really matured,
• 4:08
  right, in the three years from let's experiment to what are our
• 4:13
  use cases to actually embedded in the business, in the
• 4:16
  business. What I'm really curious about,
• 4:18
  and you may have heard me talk about this in terms of retail at
• 4:20
  the speed of experience, retail at the speed of intelligence and
• 4:25
  then retail at the speed of culture and community.
• 4:29
  From all of the beautiful and wonderful speakers that you've
• 4:32
  spoken to, where would you put them?
• 4:34
  Where? Where is people's heads at?
• 4:36
  I know AI is the answer but yeah.
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  But honestly, it's culture. I think it is retail at the
• 4:41
  speed of culture. And, and I say that because, you
• 4:43
  know, I'm fresh off the Gary Vee, you know, you're not
• 4:46
  relevant, you're not getting customers you have to be
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  relevant for. But you can't just hope for that
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  80% over and over, right? That, you know, with the old
• 4:55
  adage 8020 of 80% of your, you know, 20% of your customers give
• 5:00
  you 80% of the revenue. That 20%, the loyalty and the
• 5:04
  relevance. It takes one drop.
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  If you're not constantly acquiring and kind of constantly
• 5:08
  innovating to get potentially wider audiences, you are failing
• 5:13
  fast. Yeah.
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  I mean, this is one of the first years that I heard about
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  contextual commerce in terms of the next, like what's next?
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  How do we get around the corner? And then that's all about how do
• 5:23
  I take my 20% of customers and get them to that 80% of revenue,
• 5:27
  right? How do I keep getting that?
• 5:29
  Yeah. It's more expensive to acquire,
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  right And. We know that lifetime value goes
• 5:32
  up a. Lot, but if they don't, if you
• 5:35
  aren't pleasing that kind of 20%.
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  Fully, yeah. You know, attend, again,
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  attention span is incredibly fickle.
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  So it's you're seeing that more and more.
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  But so much of what AI is doing in these industries is creating
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  the personalization, is creating all of these experiences that
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  we've always talked about, but you can't do it scale.
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  Personalization at scale is essentially impossible to do 1
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  to 1 without the users giving some kind of feedback.
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  So we're seeing a tonne of announcements about Agenta
• 6:01
  commerce, Google made a big announcement, all of that.
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  We're not there yet. That's not the material revenue
• 6:06
  play yet. What's there is helping that
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  customers convert faster and better on the sites on the app,
• 6:12
  but also being found, Yes, if I'm starting my search now,
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  right, I'm not a black suitcase for travel like I might have
• 6:20
  used in Google. Yeah, I'm going to ChatGPT and I
• 6:23
  am doing, you know, an average ChatGPT search is anywhere from
• 6:26
  85 to 140 words. Wow.
• 6:28
  So, and that's how you're getting the results.
• 6:30
  So it's really optimising for that experience, both for the GE
• 6:34
  OS and for the customer. But at the end of the day, if
• 6:37
  your house is in an order, none of this matters, No.
• 6:39
  So, you know, the basics are still here on the floor, OK?
• 6:42
  Shifting gears and and sort of closing off, I mean, this is
• 6:45
  just the start for your year, right?
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  You've got yeah, you've got Singapore, you've got Paris, and
• 6:51
  then you announce Riyadh. Oh my gosh.
• 6:53
  Being announced, you're going into the Middle East.
• 6:55
  Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 2027.
• 6:58
  And really excited. I mean, talk about a place with
• 7:01
  limitless opportunity. Yeah, a lot of disposable income
• 7:05
  and a whole new generation. A whole new generation?
• 7:09
  Absolutely. So we're really, really excited
• 7:12
  and it's just, it's a, it's almost a playground, right, of a
• 7:15
  place that we get to kind of create with a partner to get
• 7:19
  there. And I can't get there soon
• 7:20
  enough. I think I'm gonna go visit
• 7:21
  February. So fantastic, I did got some
• 7:24
  suggestions for you, Yes, So this is a tough question, right?
• 7:27
  So you can take a pass as you go to Singapore and Paris.
• 7:32
  What would you leave from this NRF and what would you take with
• 7:35
  you? Oh, good question.
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  You know, I think I would leave some of the sessions that are
• 7:42
  just talking about the here and now.
• 7:44
  Got you. This is just everything we do
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  every day etcetera, etcetera. I really want to challenge
• 7:51
  people to think about what again look at our theme the next now
• 7:54
  what is coming next. I mean, you're obvious.
• 7:56
  We're always and I hate this saying, but I'm a little tired.
• 7:59
  I can't think of the. Matter what this is.
• 8:01
  You know, we're we're all building planes while flying in
• 8:05
  that right? You know we're.
• 8:06
  All thinking, right, you know, we're all doing what we're doing
• 8:10
  here, but at the same time we're thinking about what's next and
• 8:13
  we have to be and planning. So I think to push the other
• 8:17
  regions and a lot of the content we've done today, on Tuesday
• 8:21
  specifically is the future forward thinking What what can
• 8:24
  you lean into? What are the few things you can
• 8:26
  try? Look, no one has a lot of money
• 8:28
  to lose. No one has time to lose.
• 8:29
  So do it quickly, test, iterate, etcetera.
• 8:33
  So I think I'd leave some of the the case studies of what worked
• 8:36
  last year, Yeah, and maybe what's working today, like bring
• 8:39
  it a little more forward. I think that's what I'd try.
• 8:41
  I love it. I love it.
• 8:43
  OK, I'm, I'm, I'm just conscious.
• 8:45
  I was, I wanted to talk about the last session because you're
• 8:46
  right. You've got some really 2:30
• 8:48
  There's a fantastic session that I wanted to be in.
• 8:50
  Yes, Jason Goldberg session will be incredible.
• 8:52
  That was, but what was the guy? Saying, oh, he, he is so
• 8:55
  incredible at explaining topics that are far above anyone's pay
• 8:59
  grade in a completely digestible way.
• 9:02
  And looking at the future. He works at Publicis.
• 9:05
  He is the chief commerce and strategy officer and he is he
• 9:09
  advises the biggest brands in the world what's coming.
• 9:11
  So everyone will get a sneak peek of what's coming by if you
• 9:14
  attended the 230 show today on Tuesday.
• 9:16
  Yeah, that'll be there. OK, Joe, with that, I'm going to
• 9:19
  let you run off to get ready for your.
• 9:20
  What session are you closing off?
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  There's a 1:00 session on the featured stages.
• 9:24
  It's called fact or Fiction and I have two President and CEO of
• 9:28
  retail multi Channel, long experiences on both and I'm
• 9:32
  throwing out some myths. OK, who should the CIO or the
• 9:35
  technology group report to see? And then I'm going to say, you
• 9:38
  know, a prompt factor fiction, it should report to the CEO,
• 9:42
  factor fiction, it should report to the CFO.
• 9:44
  And they're going to debate and talk about what they've seen
• 9:46
  work well and what they see changing with AI.
• 9:49
  Yeah, I mean, the biggest advocates for AI now are going
• 9:51
  to be CFO's. Right.
• 9:52
  They're going to be like, what are we doing?
• 9:54
  How are we going to do? How are we going to reduce?
• 9:55
  That cost? That's brilliant.
• 9:57
  OK, Joe, thank you so much. I'm going to give you a hug.
• 10:00
  Thank you for being here. Thank you for your excitement
• 10:02
  for. Retail, it's brilliant.