Observed Signal · Jun 25, 2026 · Conference Coverage · Source: Modern Retail · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Positive
Retailers Embrace AI, Set Boundaries
At the CommerceNext Growth Summit in New York City, retail and brand executives described how they are deploying AI across customer-facing and internal operations — while clearly defining use-cases they won’t automate. Speakers from Tecovas, Ulta, Pandora, JD Finish Line, Kendra Scott and Authentic Brands Group described implementations such as in-store associate assistants, AI-driven product information tools, customer-service agents that escalate to humans, propensity modeling to route inquiries, and brand-specific knowledge bases. Executives emphasized human-in-the-loop controls for customer interactions, refused AI-driven model/on-skin imagery for product photography, and highlighted how first‑party customer data and machine learning are being used to personalize experiences and surface insights from call-center data.
Practical examples of AI adoption and defined human-in-the-loop boundaries from multiple retailers show meaningful, incremental operational changes for retail and martech teams but do not constitute a platform-level policy or industry-shifting release.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- The CommerceNext Growth Summit in New York City featured retail executives discussing AI adoption and limits.
- Tecovas is exploring AI for back‑office tasks (e.g., managing email) but prohibits cellphones and AI-driven customer interactions on the sales floor.
- Ulta launched an in-store AI tool to help associates access product and trend information to reduce friction in guest interactions.
- Pandora will not use AI to generate model or on-skin imagery, but is testing 360-degree product views that are not worn.
- JD Finish Line ingests qualitative call-center data to feed AI agents and uses propensity modeling to decide whether to route customers to AI or humans.
Connected Companies & Entities
4 Entities mapped“Last year, Ulta launched an AI tool that associates can use to get more information about products and trends to help customers....”
“Elizabeth Garry, vp of e-commerce at jewelry brand Pandora, said none of Pandora’s model imagery or on-skin imagery will ever be AI-driven....”
“Adnan Somani, evp of digital technology for Authentic Brands Group — which includes Reebok, Champion, Guess and Eddie Bauer, among others — ...”
“Henry Spear, svp of digital and customer care for JD Finish Line, which owns Finish Line, JD Sports and Finish Line at Macy’s — which operat...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
Related Market Signals & Shifts
Recent verified developments and strategic activity across this market segment.
Retail AI Talks Shift Toward Strategy and Results
At retail industry events such as Shoptalk Spring, conversations about artificial intelligence have moved from experimentation and efficiency gains toward demonstrating measurable results and formal AI strategies. Retailers and brands showcased use cases — David's Bridal described an AI wedding-planning platform called Pearl that increased time on site, and Macy's highlighted an "Ask Macy's" shopping assistant whose early tests showed users spent 400% more. Agencies and vendors emphasized moving beyond using AI as a work assistant to building products and processes that were previously impossible. Executives cited change management, workforce reskilling, and multi‑pillar AI strategies (E.l.f. Beauty outlined four pillars) as critical. Informal polling and recent vendor experiments (including ChatGPT’s retreat from Instant Checkout) suggest consumers use AI more at work than for shopping, highlighting gaps between hype and real consumer readiness.
Retailers Reframe Omnichannel Around AI and Loyalty
Executives from Ulta Beauty, Stitch Fix, Tapestry and others discussed how omnichannel retail is evolving with artificial intelligence at a CommerceNext panel on June 24, 2026. Panelists said AI and agentic platforms (ChatGPT, Gemini and other assistants) are shifting discovery away from brand-name queries, requiring consistent brand identity across touchpoints. Retailers highlighted that loyalty programs and in-store/in-app experiences remain central — Ulta reported 47 million loyalty members and that 95% of its sales occur through the loyalty program — and that AI can be used to personalize experiences, improve content and scale store-concierge interactions when trained on associate-customer conversations. Panelists also shared operational data: Boot Barn reported high in-store pickup and ship-from-store percentages, and Stitch Fix said roughly 60% of clients use its app regularly.
Retailers Integrate AI Shopping with Own Data and Checkout
Retailers and major AI companies are integrating AI-driven discovery with merchant product data and checkout systems to keep transactions and customer data within retailer ecosystems. Adobe reports substantial increases in AI-referred traffic and conversion rates in 2026, while Google launched Universal Cart and a Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP) to enable checkout features across Search and Gemini. OpenAI’s Agentic Commerce Protocol and structured product feeds let merchants supply product and checkout data to AI shopping services while remaining merchant of record. Retailers including Walmart, Ulta Beauty, Wayfair, Nike, Sephora and Target are working with AI services to enable shoppable experiences and retain first‑party customer insights. New measurement tools from Google and Adobe help merchants assess AI visibility and identify missing product attributes.
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