Kantar Retail Sound Bites Episode 98: National Retail Federation 2026: Retail's Big Show
Jan 22, 2026
David Marcotte, retail innovation specialist reporting expo-floor tech trends. Amar Singh, retail data and AI expert with on-the-ground NRF observations. They walk through agentic commerce and AI tying front end to backend. They highlight RFID moving to frictionless checkout, robotics from floor bots to delivery vehicles, synthetic data for visual models, and creators and community reshaping retail attention.
AI Snips
Chapters
Transcript
Episode notes
Make AI Transformation Business‑Led
- Treat AI transformation as business transformation, not tech for tech's sake.
- Follow Microsoft’s guidance: prioritize data quality, culture, responsibility and partner selection.
Data As The New Currency
- Data is king and trust is the new currency as AI integrates commerce data.
- Amar highlights single source of truth work tying loyalty, inventory and merchandising into unified datasets.
International Tech Profiles Emerging
- Global vendors from Israel, France and China brought distinct innovation profiles.
- David and Amar note Israeli technical depth, French marketing tech, and lower‑cost Chinese solutions.