AI takes centre stage at NRF: What retail leaders need to know now

Artificial intelligence wasn’t just a topic at NRF. It was the connective thread across keynotes, fireside chats, and panels, signalling a clear platform shift for retail and ecommerce.

From Google and OpenAI’s vision for agentic AI to real-world deployments from brands like URBN, NRF’s AI-focused sessions made one thing clear: AI is fundamentally changing how consumers discover products, how brands engage shoppers, and how commerce systems are built.

Here’s what stood out, and why it matters for ecommerce leaders navigating what comes next.

AI represents a fundamental rewiring of retail technology

One of the strongest themes from NRF was the idaea that AI is not an incremental upgrade. It is a foundational shift.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai described AI as a “fundamental rewiring of technology,” with the power to accelerate human ingenuity across every industry, including retail. AI is reshaping how search works, how discovery happens, and how intelligence is delivered at scale, moving from keywords to conversations and from static experiences to adaptive ones. 

For retailers, this shift means traditional digital touchpoints are being replaced or augmented by AI-powered interfaces that understand intent, personalise results, and guide decisions in real time.

From keywords to conversations: Discovery is becoming agent-led

Across multiple sessions, speakers emphasised that discovery is no longer about optimising for keywords alone. It is about capturing intent.

AI-powered experiences, from Google’s AI Overviews to conversational agents like Gemini and Copilot, are changing how shoppers explore options. Consumers are asking questions, comparing products, and narrowing choices inside conversational interfaces rather than navigating traditional search results or category pages. 

This shift places new pressure on retailers to ensure their product data is clean, structured, and rich enough to power accurate, on-brand recommendations. As one session reinforced, product data is no longer just a backend asset. It is the oxygen that fuels AI-driven discovery.

Agentic commerce is already live, not theoretical

NRF also highlighted that agentic commerce is not a future concept. It is already in production.

URBN shared how it launched a shoppable experience inside Microsoft Copilot, allowing customers to move naturally from discovery to transaction within a conversational environment. The session reinforced the importance of strong partnerships, established protocols, and clear ownership of the customer relationship, with retailers remaining the merchant of record even as new agent-led interfaces emerge.

These early implementations mirror the early days of ecommerce itself. Brands willing to test, learn, and iterate now will be better positioned as agentic shopping becomes more common.

Trust, ownership, and openness remain critical

As AI agents play a larger role in shopping journeys, questions of trust and ownership move to the forefront.

Several sessions emphasised the need for open partnerships, interoperable systems, and clear guardrails. Consumers want to understand how their data is used, how AI makes decisions, and who is responsible when something goes wrong. Retailers, in turn, must preserve customer relationships, brand equity, and data ownership even as commerce becomes more distributed across platforms and agents.

This balance between innovation and trust will define which brands succeed in the agentic commerce era.

Preparing for what comes next

Taken together, NRF’s AI-focused sessions painted a clear picture of what retail leaders should prioritise now:

• Invest in clean, structured, and continuously updated product data

• Prepare for answer engine optimisation alongside traditional SEO

• Design commerce systems that support conversational discovery and agent-led transactions

• Build trust through transparency, guardrails, and customer education

AI is already reshaping how commerce works. The question is not whether retailers should adapt, but how quickly they can do so.

The final word

NRF made it clear that AI is no longer an emerging trend. It is the foundation of the next era of retail.

From agent-led discovery to conversational checkout, the sessions underscored that ecommerce leaders must rethink how their data, systems, and customer experiences work together in an AI-first world. Brands that act now will be better positioned to meet shoppers wherever AI takes them next.

To learn more about how Big Commerce supports agent-driven shopping journeys, read our blog, The Rise of Agentic Commerce Platforms: What Every Business Needs to Know.