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As 2026 takes shape, the most successful leaders will adopt new tools with responsibility and vision while keeping the human side of shopping alive. These 10 tech trends in retail tech and AI are evolving, transforming how brands design, distribute, and deliver experiences. These are not distant forecasts, but happening in real time across retailers, marketplaces, and consumer ecosystems. 1. Predictive intent engines Reactive personalization is being replaced by predictive intent engines. Instead of waiting for a customer to browse, AI anticipates the customer’s next wants based on contextual data like weather, life events, and even local cultural moments. For example, as outdoor searches tick upward in specific regions, retailers surface camping gear. The upside is deeper relevance. As with every trend, there are risks. Here, if the timing is too perfect, the relevance can feel intrusive to the customer. 2. Retail copilots for associates When I talk to retail teams, many describe how AI copilots are becoming the new work partner for associates. In practice, staff use smart glasses and mobile assistants to feed real-time product data, customer history, or upsell suggestions. Frontline employees transform from reactive clerks to proactive advisors. The challenge is keeping interactions authentic. Customers want genuine conversations, not AI scripts delivered through a human face. 3. Algorithmic supply webs The supply chain is no longer a straight line but a web of constantly reconfiguring nodes. Retailers tell me their systems now simulate thousands of scenarios dailyrerouting orders, shifting suppliers, or adjusting transportation paths on the fly. I see this trend especially in grocery and fashion, where volatility is high. Supply webs provide resilience, but also create a transparency challenge. Shoppers and regulators will want to know how these algorithmic choices affect workers and sustainability. 4. Immersive brand layers Immersive storytelling is moving from pilot projects to mainstream adoption. Augmented reality is layered into packaging, storefronts, and mobile apps. One apparel brand I follow lets customers scan a tag to see the products journey from fiber to fashion show. Another uses AR mirrors to project outfit combinations in the store. The brand layers transform shopping into a multimedia experience. The challenge is keeping it purposeful rather than gimmicky. 5. Microfactories near the customer More retailers are experimenting with localized, AI-driven microfactories. These factories can 3D-print fashion accessories, produce limited-run beauty items, or assemble electronics close to demand centers. I recently saw a footwear brand offering near-instant customization at an urban hub, with shoes ready within days. The opportunity is speed and personalization. The challenge is cost. Microfactories remain expensive compared to global mass production. 6. Real-time sustainability scores Retailers are making sustainability metrics visible at the shelf or checkout. Shoppers now see carbon impact scores, packaging grades, or ethical sourcing flags. AI crunches supplier and logistics data to make this possible. One grocer is piloting real-time sustainability dashboards in an app, so shoppers can compare two items not just by price but by footprint. The opportunity is radical transparency. The challenge is to ensure credible numbers and avoid greenwashing in a new format. 7. Autonomous merchandising systems Conversations with merchandising leaders reveal how manual planning cycles are being replaced by AI-driven systems making thousands of small decisions daily. Platforms decide which colors to stock by neighborhood, which SKUs to pull from digital shelves, or how to rotate assortments dynamically. The benefit is responsiveness. The risk involves blind spots: Without human oversight, algorithms can miss cultural nuances or local contexts. 8. Neural commerce platforms Commerce is dissolving into everyday life through connected devices. Smart fridges reorder staples. Cars let drivers voice-order coffee and have it waiting at the next stop. Voice assistants anticipate weekly needs without prompting. Retail is becoming neural, with systems firing across networks without friction. The opportunity is effortless convenience. The challenge is maintaining customer agencyretailers must ensure that shoppers feel in control of purchases instead of letting automation decide entirely. 9. Data collaboratives across competitors Retailers are starting to collaborate on data despite fierce competition. Shared, anonymized pools of information strengthen forecasting, reduce waste, and help optimize logistics. For example, several mid-sized fashion brands are joining forces to track demand signals and cut excess inventory. The opportunity is collective intelligence. The challenge is trustdeciding what to share and how to govern these collaboratives fairly. 10. Leadership as technology stewardship The last trend isn’t a tool but a leadership evolution. Executives are now judged by how they steward technology responsibly. I observe boards asking harder questions: How are algorithms monitored for bias? How is customer privacy respected? How is staff retrained for AI collaboration? There’s an opportunity to build brands trusted as responsible innovators. The challenge is balancing the speed of adoption with careful stewardship in a space where technology is evolving faster than regulation. The future: 2026 and beyond When I put these trends together, the picture is clear: Retail in 2026 is not just using technology, it is becoming technology. Predictive engines anticipate demand, copilots empower staff, immersive layers engage customers, and neural commerce embeds shopping into everyday life. But the deeper story is about responsibility. Customers demand transparency, regulators demand accountability, and employees demand clarity about their role in AI-shaped workplaces. The retailers who win will not be the ones with the flashiest tech but the ones who use it thoughtfully, balancing automation with humanity. A new playbook is emerging that will anticipate needs, empower people, embed transparency, and lead with stewardship. Those who follow it will not just adapt to the future of retail; they will shape it. Charisma Glassman is the group vice president and global head of retail applied advisory at Genpact.
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E-Commerce
On any day during her eight years as First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama said she could go from giving a speech to meeting with a counterpart from another country to digging in her vegetable garden with groups of schoolchildren.And her clothes had to be ready for that. There was too much else to do, including raising daughters Sasha and Malia, and she said she didn’t have time to obsess over what she was wearing.“I was concerned about, ‘Can I hug somebody in it? Will it get dirty?'” she said Wednesday night during a moderated conversation about her style choices dating back to growing up on the South Side of Chicago to when she found herself in the national spotlight as the first Black woman to serve in the role. “I was the kind of First Lady that there was no telling what I would do.”Obama would become one of the most-watched women in the world, for what she said and did, but also for what she wore. She chronicled her fashion, hair and makeup journey in her newest book, “The Look,” written with her longtime stylist Meredith Koop and published earlier this month.As First Lady, she was well-known for her athleticism and caught a football from an NFL player, played soccer with David Beckham, broke a Guinness World Record for jumping jacks and did pushups with Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa.She wanted her clothes to be welcoming as well as versatile.“The thing about clothes that I find is that they can welcome people in or they can keep people away, and if you’re so put together and so precious and things are so crisp and the pin is so big, you know, it can just tell people, ‘Don’t touch me,'” she said.She said she wouldn’t wear white to events with rope lines in case someone wanted a hug.“I’m not going to push somebody away when they need something from me, and I’m not going to let the clothes get in the way of that,” Obama said.Here’s what she said about a few of her notable fashion choices: Her gown for Obama’s first inauguration The white, one-shoulder chiffon gown was designed by Jason Wu, then an unknown 26-year-old who was born in Taiwan. But when she stepped out at the inaugural ball wearing the gown, the moment changed Wu’s life. And that was by design, she said.“We were beginning to realize everything we did sent a message,” Obama said, speaking of herself and her husband, former President Barack Obama. “So that’s what we were trying to do with the choices we made, to change lives.”She would continue to help launch the careers of other up-and-coming designers by wearing their creations. Chain mail state dinner gown Obama wore the rose gold gown by Versace for the Obama administration’s final state dinner, for Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi in October 2016.“So that was a kind of a, ‘I don’t care’ dress,” she said of the shimmery, one-armed gown.“I put that on. I was like, ‘This is sexy.’ It’s the last one,” she said, meaning their final state dinner. “All of my choices, ultimately, are what is beautiful and what looks beautiful on.” Pantsuit worn to Joe Biden’s inauguration “I was really in practical mode,” Obama said, explaining why she chose the maroon ensemble by Sergio Hudson with a flowing, floor-length coat that she wore unbuttoned, exposing the belt around her waist with a big, round gold-toned buckle. Her boots had a low heel.“The sitting president was trying to convince us that Jan. 6 was just a peaceful protest,” she said.The inauguration ceremony at the Capitol was held two weeks after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot there by supporters of President Donald Trump who had sought to overturn Biden’s victory.She said she had been thinking about the possibility of having to run if something else had happened that day.“I wanted to be able to move. I wanted to be ready,” she said. But she and her team “had no idea” the outfit “was going to break the internet,” she said. White House East Wing Obama also spoke about the East Wing, the traditional base of operations for first ladies that Trump last month tore down to make room for a ballroom he’s long desired.Obama described the East Wing as a joyful place that she remembers as full of apples, children, puppies and laughter, in contrast to the West Wing, which dealt with “horrible things.” It was where she worked on various initiatives that ranged from combating childhood obesity to rallying the country around military families to encouraging developing countries to let girls go to school.She said she and her husband never thought of the White House as “our house.” They saw themselves more as caretakers, and there was work to do in the mansion.“But every president has the right to do what they want in that house, so that’s why we’ve got to be clear on who we let in,” Obama said. Darlene Superville, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
Flight reductions at 40 major U.S. airports will remain at 6% instead of rising to 10% by the end of the week because more air traffic controllers are coming to work, officials said Wednesday.The announcement was made as Congress took steps to end the longest government shutdown in history. Not long after, President Donald Trump signed a government funding bill to end the closure.The flight cuts were implemented last week as more air traffic controllers were calling out of work, citing stress and the need to take on second jobs leaving more control towers and facilities short-staffed. Air traffic controllers missed two paychecks during the impasse.The Department of Transportation said the flight reduction decision was made on recommendations from the Federal Aviation Administration’s safety team, after a “rapid decline” in controller callouts.The 6% limit will stay in place while officials assess whether the air traffic system can safely return to normal operations, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said, although he did not provide a timeline Wednesday.“If the FAA safety team determines the trend lines are moving in the right direction, we’ll put forward a path to resume normal operations,” Duffy said in a statement.Duffy and FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford said Wednesday that safety remains their top priority and that all decisions will be guided by data.Delta struck an optimistic note about how much longer flight reductions would continue, saying in a statement the airline looked forward to bringing its “operation back to full capacity over the next few days.”Since the restrictions took effect last Friday, more than 10,100 flights have been canceled, according to the flight tracking site FlightAware. The FAA originally planned to ramp up flight cuts from 4% to 10% at the 40 airports.The FAA said that worrisome safety data showed flight reductions were needed to ease pressure on the aviation system and help manage worsening staffing shortages at its air traffic control facilities as flight disruptions began to pile up.Duffy has declined to share the specific safety data that prompted the flight cuts. But at a news conference Tuesday at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, he cited reports of planes getting too close in the air, more runway incursions and pilot concerns about controllers’ responses.The FAA’s list of 40 airports spans more than two dozen states and includes large hubs such as New York, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Chicago. The order requires all commercial airlines to make cuts at those airports.Airlines for America, the trade group of U.S. airlines, posted on social media that it was grateful for the funding bill. It said reopening the government would allow U.S. airlines to restore operations ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday which is in about two weeks.How long it will take for the aviation system to stabilize is unclear. The flight restrictions upended airline operations in just a matter of days. Many planes were rerouted and aren’t where they’re supposed to be. Airlines for America said earlier Wednesday that there would be residual effects for days.Eric Chaffee, a Case Western Reserve professor who studies risk management, says airlines face complex hurdles, including rebuilding flight schedules that were planned months in advance.Airline and hotel trade groups had earlier Wednesday urged the House to act quickly to end the shutdown, warning of potential holiday travel chaos.Flight cuts disrupted other flights and crews, leading to more cancelations than the FAA required at first. The impact was worsened by unexpected controller shortages over the weekend and severe weather.The CEO of the U.S. Travel Association said essential federal workers like air traffic controllers and Transportation Security Administration workers must be paid if “Congress ever goes down this foolish path again” and there is a shutdown.“America cannot afford another self-inflicted crisis that threatens the systems millions rely on every day,” Geoff Freeman said in a statement. Associated Press writer Audrey McAvoy contributed to this report. Rio Yamat, AP Airlines and Travel Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
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