Artificial intelligence and how it is changing the way consumers shop and how stores sell is the main focus of this year’s National Retail Federation’s annual trade show, which drew 40,000 retail executives, technology companies and other vendors to the Javits Convention Center in New York this week.
Following what has been labeled as the first AI-driven holiday season, when the industry saw in real time how AI was driving purchasing decisions, retail executives flocked to the show looking to learn how to leverage new technologies to boost profits.
More than two dozen presentations on Sunday, the day the event kicked off, focused on different uses of AI, including several sessions on one of the most talked-about AI topics, agentic AI — AI agents trained to take on increasingly complex customer service and other employee tasks.
The keynote presentation at the conference, which took place on Sunday morning, was a talk between John Furner, president and CEO of Walmart US, and Azita Martin, who is the leader of NVIDIA’s artificial intelligence initiatives for the retail and consumer products industries. NVIDIA recently announced new technology to help retailers create A1-powered digital assistants.
Retailers’ enthusiasm for AI investment is fueled by evidence during the holiday season that AI tools help drive sales. Adobe Analytics reported last week that traffic to retail sites from generative AI chatbots was up 1,300% this holiday season compared to last year. Cyber Monday saw chatbot-driven traffic grow 1,950% this year.
A survey by Adobe found that 70% of respondents who have used generative AI for shopping believe it improves their experience.
Retailers also came to the show eager to invest in AI thanks to better-than-expected holiday results, according to the reports initials.
About Agentic AI
Agentic AI distinguishes itself from other artificial intelligence systems because it does not simply follow pre-established instructions. It is a type of AI that has the ability to make decisions, adapt to changing situations and learn from its experiences.
A new prototype known as Agentic AI is emerging, poised to revolutionize the role of AI from simply interpreting and responding to prompts to managing complex tasks autonomously. This advancement holds the promise of a future where AI not only improves decision-making and productivity, but also navigates dynamic environments autonomously, making it a transformative technology across all industries.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that possess a degree of autonomy, capable of planning actions, making decisions, and learning from experiences to achieve specific goals without constant human intervention. Agentic AI systems were designed to have what is called «agency,» meaning they can autonomously carry out tasks on behalf of users or other systems, by deciding their own workflows and using available tools.
Unlike traditional LLMs, which respond to prompts within predefined parameters, Agentic AI can adapt and learn from new user interactions and data, execute and schedule complex multi-step tasks, interact with external tools and databases, and improve over time through feedback loops and continuous learning. This capability combines the versatility and flexibility of LLMs with the precision of traditional programming, offering the best of both worlds.
