Top takeaways
-
AI is Core to Retail
Retailers are investing heavily in AI, with nearly half calling it central to their business. -
Agentic AI Gains Traction
Autonomous AI agents are driving major gains in productivity and decision-making speed. -
Unified Data is Critical
Disconnected data remains a top challenge—unification is key to AI success. -
Smarter, Faster Decisions
AI automates complex tasks in category management, marketing, and supply chain. -
Deeper Shopper & Store Insights
AI powers better personalization and store execution through real-time analytics.
Unconventional insights from the Asia Pacific edition of NRF’s Big Show
AI remains the hottest topic in retail as was apparent again recently in Singapore. That’s where in early June the National Retail Federation held the Asia Pacific edition of its Big Show and drew nearly 10,000 attendees to an event in only its second year.
The impressive turnout is a testament to the thirst for knowledge that exists in a dynamic region where AI has entered a new golden age and is poised to transform every aspect of how retailers operate. This reality was evident from the beginning of the three-day event held June 3-5 at the iconic Marina Bay Sands that began with a keynote presentation from Isabelle Allen, Global Head of Consumer & Retail at KPMG.
She described how AI is disrupting retail at its core, unlocking game-changing opportunities and forcing retailers to rethink how their businesses function, from product design through to customer engagement. Her comments are validated by a major research project the firm conducted titled, “Intelligent Retail A Blueprint for creating value through AI-driven transformation.
More than 56% of retailers have been using AI for more than three years and 47% said it has become core to their business, according to those surveyed. More than 82% believe that retailers who embrace AI will develop a competitive edge over those who do not.
The need to use AI to gain competitive advantage highlighted in the KPMG research explains why 67% of those surveyed said in 2025 they will increase the percentage of their global budget spent on AI. One third of those indicated their AI budgets will increase by more than 20%.
AI is the universal language of retail
The research also revealed the top challenges organizations face when implementing AI, several of which were recurring themes at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show APAC. For example, the related issues of poor data quality and siloed data sources were ranked as the third and fourth top challenges, slightly behind security and data privacy and the lack of AI skills or expertise among the workforce. The findings are based on responses by 1,390 decision-makers across key global markets, including 163 respondents from the retail sector, according to KPMG.
Data challenges, especially around the unification of siloed information, were an intense area of focus for retailers who met with SymphonyAI in Singapore. That’s because unifying disparate sources of critical business information, from areas such as merchandising, marketing, supply chain and retail operations, is essential to unlocking the full potential of AI.
SymphonyAI solves this crucial industry challenge with the CINDE Connected Retail platform. By unifying disparate sources of data retailers are able to dramatically improve how they manage their businesses and serve shoppers because insights are integrated across supply chain, store management, category management, and promotions. The end results are unmatched forecast accuracy, streamlined operations, more precise promotional offers and increased customer loyalty.
Other reasons why AI dominated conversations
Whether a retailer operates in India, Thailand, Australia or the Americas, there are core areas such as merchandising, marketing, supply chain and retail operations where retailers face familiar business challenges. Accordingly, conversations in Singapore, similar to NRF’s flagship Big Show event in January in New York, focused on areas such as:
The revolutionary capabilities of Agentic AI: Retailers are eager to crack the Agentic AI code due to the tremendous speed and productivity gains that are possible. Agentic AI is heralded for its ability to dramatically transform retail business processes to increase productivity and decision-making accuracy. Conversations centered on how autonomous AI agents are appealing to retailers because of how they proactively perform complex, data-intensive tasks to accelerate workflows for core processes such as new product introductions, promotion planning, and assortment optimization. This ability of Agentic AI to function independently differentiates it from generative AI which requires prompts from users to perform tasks.
The data unification imperative: As mentioned previously, this point can’t be overstated because without unified data AI doesn’t deliver its promised benefits. Thus, a frequent topic of conversation involved overcoming a perennial challenge that has intensified as data sources and volumes have grown. It’s why connected retail championed by SymphonyAI with the CINDE Connected Retail Platform is seen as essential for future retail success. Retailers have spoken openly about connected retail, why they have embraced it, and the results they are already seeing.
Automated decision-making: Improving productivity, as well as decision-making speed, is an unending quest in the retail industry. Unified data and agentic AI are understood to be key enablers, but there was intense interest around specific use cases where AI can have an immediate and quantifiable impact. Category management, marketing, and supply chain are areas that stood out because AI helps eliminate tedious tasks related to data extraction and manipulation necessary to create planograms, optimize promotions, or develop demand forecasts.
Shopper insights discovery: Shopper insights matter more than ever, but the big change possible with AI is the quality of insights, the speed at which they can be identified and acted upon. This is one of the top use cases for predictive and generative AI and was understandably a top area of interest among retailers at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show APAC. Retailers with the best insights can personalize and improve promotional effectiveness, thereby increasing loyalty, basket size, and trip frequency. Gaining visibility into shopper behavior they’ve never been able to see before with stunning speed and accuracy is something all retailers aspire to achieve.
Improved store execution: This is a huge challenge in markets globally but can vary relative to the cost and availability of labor combined with shoppers’ elevated expectations. While the Asia Pacific region is home to highly diverse markets, retailers face similar operational issues related to on-shelf availability, planogram compliance and pricing accuracy. AI can be instrumental in addressing each of these challenges due to advances in AI-based computer vision that make it possible to identify previously undetectable lapses in execution, prioritize corrective actions, and deploy labor to perform the highest-value tasks. The concept of store analytics—or store intelligence—is gaining traction industrywide as leading operators recognize the value of seeing what they’ve been missing in stores.
Retailers are ready to seize the day with AI
Retailers were all in on AI at NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show in early January when close to 40,000 global attendees gathered in New York. The intense interest in retail technology and AI prompted NRF to launch the APAC edition of the Big Show last year and the second installment this year was met with even more enthusiasm. Soon NRF will bring its Big Show brand to Paris with the inaugural NRF 2025: Retail’s Big Show Europe September 16-18.
The event is billed as the most comprehensive gathering in Europe with organizers NRF and Paris-based Comexposium projecting 15,000 attendees. AI will again be a focus area as an NRF whitepaper highlighting key themes described how the retail industry is on the edge of a profound change as AI is introduced into business operations. Retailers who underestimate the extent of AI-powered change do so at their own peril.
It’s time to talk to SymphonyAI about how AI can make your business better. Let’s connect in Paris or get in touch here if we missed you in Singapore or New York.
Want to learn more about the top AI use cases and how to achieve ROI? Get in touch with SymphonyAI today.
