In 2026, AI talk at retail events shifts to proving real results, defining a true strategy

While AI has been the dominant theme at big industry conferences for the past few years, the conversation around AI seems to shift in small but subtle ways each year as the technology moves further and further away from the experimentation phase. That was clear at this year’s Shoptalk Spring. 

Two years ago, the conversation largely focused around the risks and benefits of AI, as many of the AI tools from tech vendors and retailers were still in their infancy. 

Last year, much of the talk shifted to how brands and retailers were using AI to be more efficient in business-critical areas like customer service or inventory planning. While some eager first-movers were starting to use AI to generate ads, most brands and retailers were still hesitant. 

This year, there were even more use cases on display. David’s Bridal’s president and Chief  Business Officer, Elina Vilk, spoke about the company’s AI-powered wedding planning platform, Pearl, which it says has increased time on site. Macy’s executives talked up a new “Ask Macy’s” shopping assistant; early testing showed that shoppers who use it spend 400% more than those who don’t. 

But what started to shift this year was that brands, retailers, agencies and tech vendors didn’t just want to talk about how they are using AI to be more productive or drive more sales, but rather, to prove they have a bona fide AI strategy. 

Conversations weren’t just centered around new tools but rather on how brands and retailers are using AI to rethink entire processes. They shared more notes on how they are making adjustments as they get new data on what customers do and don’t want to use AI for. And they talked up how to find new levers within the tool of choice — whether it be Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT — to make a process or workflow even more productive.

As Joe Yakuel, CEO of digital marketing agency Within, put it, when he’s talking to people about AI usage at big industry conferences like Shoptalk, “My question is always, ‘Don’t just tell me about what you think you can do with AI and what you’re trying to do with AI, but: What are you actually doing with AI?’ The chasm between those two things is massive.”

Yakuel said, a year ago, the conversations around AI were still centered on how brands, retailers and agencies like his could use AI to “bring you strategies you used to have to go to a human who had subject matter expertise for.” That is, people were using AI as a work assistant. And to be sure, that is how many people are still using AI today: asking Gemni to analyze a particular spreadsheet for them, or identifying potential podcasts to run marketing campaigns with that would make sense with their target customer demographic.

But as people get more comfortable using AI, Yakuel said, conversations have shifted away from how people are using AI to simply be more efficient to how they are using AI to do things they were never able to do before. According to Yakuel, that means clients expect an agency like Within to be able to use AI to increase output.

“You need to harness the power of AI to build products you were never able to build before, and build them at a speed you were never able to build them before, so that you can achieve things for your clients that you were never able to achieve before,” he said. “The question is not, ‘How can I service my client cheaper today than I did a year ago?’ The question is, ‘How can I service my client better today than I did a year ago, and do that in a way that is faster for them and higher quality for them, and achieve better outcomes?’” 

In turn, more companies are talking about how they are taking a multi-pronged approach to AI, to ensure they are leaving no stone unturned. 

Take E.l.f. Beauty. As the company’s chief digital officer, Ekta Chopra, explained, there are four pillars to the beauty brand’s AI strategy — they include using AI to make humans more productive and showing up as an authority in LLMs. But E.l.f. Is also thinking about how it can reimagine every single process in the organization using AI and which processes may be ripe for end-to-end autonomy. 

Change management, she added, is something she still thinks isn’t discussed enough when it comes to AI implementation in retail. “I think you have to treat [AI] like a big change for your organization,” Chopra said. “You almost have to think about how your workforce is going to evolve, … the new titles they might have or the new roles that they have to play.”

As Jessica Ramirez, co-founder and managing director of The Consumer Collective put it,  “We are still in a time of adjustment in our industry.”

She said that, as a whole, the industry is still adjusting to: “How does AI impact jobs, how does it impact skills, and how do we use it in tandem with the skills that are now being required?”

She said that as a consultant, the conversations she’s having these days with people in the industry center around how AI may “reshape the nuts and bolts of how brands work to be more profitable.” 

At the same time, there’s a lot of work to be done still to separate hype from reality. 

That was made clear by ChatGPT’s recent retreat from Instant Checkout. What ChatGPT — and other retailers who tested out Instant Checkout — found is that many shoppers still aren’t ready to check out within their generative AI engine of choice.

That tracks with Ramirez’s recent informal research. In a poll that Ramirez ran across her newsletter and her co-founder’s and her social media profiles, 73% of respondents said they were using AI for work, but just 6.6% for shopping. 

It all goes to show that while there’s a lot of excitement around AI — and many are using it in their daily lives — Ramirez believes consumers are “still trying to figure out what they like about AI usage and what they don’t like.” 

In turn, what makes a proper AI playbook is still up for debate. That makes it ripe for brands, retailers, agencies and tech vendors to continue to discuss at big industry events like Shoptalk. 

Sarah Engel, president of media agency January Digital, said that one of the things that’s been most striking about the AI boom is how it’s brought more industry out of their respective bubbles, as people are more willing to share notes on what is or isn’t working for them to ensure they don’t get left behind. 

“ I kind of love that AI is forcing this issue in this industry of people saying, ‘I don’t know, what are you trying? What have you seen?’ or ‘I’m just going to test it. Maybe it won’t work, and that’s OK,” Engel said. 

Jill Manoff and Allison Smith contributed reporting.