State of generative AI in retail (and the one unspoken 🤐 priority)
Insights and highlights from a packed day exploring generative AI’s retail evolution.
Last week I was a panellist at the NORA (National Online Retail Association) Gen AI summit, where I spent the day speaking and learning about where retail is at with generative AI. Retail sits right on the coalface of consumer adoption - making it the ultimate maturity-testing ground for new technologies. Here are my key takeouts:
AI – Ready, Set, Go...What!?
The session opened with Patrick Rechsteiner, who provided a snapshot of the current AI landscape. He expertly covered all the essential AI terminology, setting the foundation for the rest of the day. It felt like two years of progress condensed into 45 minutes - head spinning!
Key takeout: Patrick's session was a strong reminder of just how quickly the field has advanced and highlighted the importance of not assuming people's or businesses' knowledge about generative AI.
Growth mindset required
Goran Stefkovski (CTO, Kogan) shared Kogan's journey with generative AI. Their ambition is clear, and their execution impressive. Goran walked through numerous examples of generative AI applications within Kogan - from personal productivity tools to customer-facing innovations, like reinventing search and enhancing product browsing.
Key takeout: Central to Kogan’s success is their growth mindset. By encouraging staff to openly experiment with emerging technologies, they've accelerated meaningful AI integration.
Right here, right now
Another standout for me was Michael Tutek (Founder and CEO, preezie). The demos showcasing live client sites were fantastic—simple yet powerful proof that generative AI is already production-ready for retail. Michael demonstrated preezie’s generative AI capabilities on actual client e-commerce sites, like Blue Bungalow, bringing generative-powered search and product detail pages to life.
Key takeout: Whether it’s preezie or other emerging platforms, it's evident that retailers adopting a growth mindset can start leveraging AI today to improve employee and customer experiences. If they're not, their competition certainly will.
2025: Year of the agents
I presented alongside Andrew and Alita, with Marcy MC’ing, in a session exploring why 2025 is the year of the agents. We shared real-world examples - some from our own clients - of how businesses are actively integrating agents into their workforce and the impact it's already having.
With all the hype around agents and the agentic workforce, it feels like we’re fast approaching AI’s ‘iPhone moment’. The vision of personalised digital assistants—or even digital team members - is rapidly gaining traction.
Key takeout: Future organisational structures will inevitably feature agent-augmented roles. The real value lies in pinpointing: (i) the roles to augment with AI, (ii) the roles that can be conducted by AI, and (iii) the new capabilities made possible by the emergence of agents - enabling seamless collaboration between people and AI-powered agents.
And, the one unspoken 🤐 priority…
Although most discussions revolved around technology, Karl Treacher’s (CEO, The Culture Institute) talk on AI’s cultural impact stood out. It’s no secret that generative AI is fast disrupting how we work, the roles hire, the experiences we’re able to build and so much more - but culture is often left unspoken, until too late.
As a company enabling AI adoption for our clients, this resonated deeply. At Time Under Tension, having worked with close to 100 clients over the last two years, we've consistently seen that conversations about organisational change happen too late.
Key takeout: AI adoption isn't purely a technological shift; it's organisational. Transparent adoption plans, comprehensive training, behavioural shifts, and empathetic support are essential accelerators on any business’s AI journey.
In summary
The conclusion of the day was clear - if you’re in retail, it’s time to get going! Generative AI exploded on the scene 2 years ago and fast forward to today, there are literally hundreds of use cases and benefits which can be unlocked today.
A huge thank you to NORA for organising this event and inviting us to participate. There were many excellent speakers, and the event felt like a comprehensive two-year generative AI crash course for retailers - packed into just one day!
