New whitepaper launched to help the retail industry keep up with AI tech evolution

Retail Express announces ‘Retail’s Journey to AI’ – a critical guide to assist retailers shape a strategic roadmap towards the future of data-driven intelligent merchandising powered by AI.

Retail Express, a leading provider of merchandising solutions and services for retail, has released a new whitepaper to help retailers plot a path to Artificial Intelligence (AI) in retail. Titled ‘Retail’s Journey To AI’, it provides a comprehensive guide to AI integration in retail, presenting AI as a journey that retailers can undertake to gain critical advantages in efficiency, customer experience, and market competitiveness.

AI represents a transformative opportunity for retail, enabling better decision-making and operational efficiency. AI will provide the analytics that will support and even secure retail’s future with a new way of doing business. However, AI adoption isn’t optional but essential for competitive survival, with the guide emphasising that it is critical for retailers to take those first steps, however small, towards AI today.

Barry Grange, Retail Express CEO and Co-founder, states: “It is impossible to imagine a future in which retailers do not use AI. Without the pinpoint algorithmic insights and advanced data processing techniques offered by machine learning, retailers will be unable to face up to their competitors or provide the level of service that customers will come to expect. Retailers must simply keep up with technological evolution.”

‘Retail’s Journey to AI’ – A guide to AI in retail – Summary of sections:

The paper’s sections explore how AI is reshaping retail, from machine learning and generative AI to deep learning (1 & 2). It highlights AI’s growing role in merchandising, pricing, and supplier management – especially for medium-sized retailers competing with larger, AI-enabled rivals (3). Success depends on consolidating high-quality data (4) across all business areas and building secure, scalable cloud infrastructure (5). The paper also looks ahead to emerging AI capabilities (6), including ethical use and governance as AI becomes more powerful, concluding with a practical roadmap (7).

New whitepaper: Retail’s Journey to AI – Available for download now

Intelligent merchandising powered by AI

Standing out and continually meeting customer demands in today’s fast-paced retail environment requires agility, precision, and the ability to outpace the competition. The shift to AI-driven technologies gives retailers the power of algorithmic retailing techniques to improve margins through efficiency, automation, and data-driven decision-making. AI can help improve inventory management, create next-level demand forecasts, revolutionise pricing strategies, and overhaul supply chain management.

However, the guide indicates that the first steps happen before any AI is put to work. Adopting an AI mindset and preparing for change is a manageable and necessary part of the transition. This is not a complete restart, but an acknowledgement of the challenges faced by retailers and the steps they must take to get AI ready. To do AI right, retailers should be able to offer it a clean and consistent source of data – something which traditional retail practices have not supported in the past.

“Getting started is about establishing an AI mindset and preparing for scalable AI solutions. Retailers that embrace the process position themselves for long-term success in a future which will be driven by AI and bring themselves closer to those that are already part-way down the road. But every retail business is different and the options can be daunting, so we hope our new guide helps retailers make a start on that process sooner rather than later,” concludes Edward Betts, COO, Retail Express.

Download the free Retail Express whitepaper to learn more:
https://www.retailexpress.com/retail-in-ai/