AI Adoption in Retail: Insights from Evolving Expectations 2026

76.8% of retailers surveyed in our Evolving Expectations 2026 report are already using AI in some capacity. The interesting part is where they’re choosing to use it.

💭 AI adoption is strongest in customer service and marketing personalisation, while fulfilment-specific applications like delivery prediction and warehouse optimisation remain surprisingly low.

That tells a bigger story about where retailers are comfortable experimenting versus where operational complexity starts to increase.

🔑 The opportunity in fulfilment is using AI to surface the things most teams don’t have time to continuously analyse themselves, like delivery windows impacting conversion, packaging decisions quietly increasing shipping costs, or reporting patterns that would otherwise go unnoticed.

The retailers seeing meaningful value are starting small by applying AI to specific operational decisions where the data already exists and the commercial impact is measurable.

We unpack where AI is delivering real operational value, what’s slowing adoption, and why connected systems matter more than hype in Evolving Expectations 2026 🔗
Convert Digital | SEKO Logistics | Oz Hair and Beauty | Viare | Australia Post

#AI adoption #retail trends #customer service AI #fulfilment AI #operational efficiency