How Agentic AI Will Drive Innovation And Personalization In Retail

Forbes

18-07-2025

SVP Innovation and Incubation at Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions, Yevgeni drives innovation and delivers cutting-edge retail technologies.
Retail has spent the last two decades striving to achieve the modern "smart" store filled with IoT sensors, dashboards, predictive engines and even cashier-less checkout powered by neural networks. While these systems are a progressive step in retail technology, they're still designed to see and report instead of proactively alert and act.
The industry is at a point where technology needs to be smart and self-directed. Innovation is now based on how quickly ideas can be turned into actionable solutions and results.
This is where agentic AI enters the picture as a new class of intelligence that doesn't just predict but acts. These agents pursue goals, adapt in real time and collaborate with people and systems to drive continuous outcomes. This is more than a simple layer of automation and is making its mark as the foundation of a new operating system for retail.
Three Agentic Shifts Unlocking Retail's Full Potential
Agentic AI embeds autonomous, goal-driven intelligence across retail systems, from store operations to software development. As an orchestrated end-to-end solution, it unlocks innovation opportunities in three key areas.
Retail is a constantly evolving landscape, and retailers are navigating numerous demands—all while operating with limited resources. Store teams are stretched, IT teams are backlogged, and even when the correct answer or solution is clear, the capacity to act on it often isn't there.
Agentic systems change that with fewer obstacles, faster fixes and a workforce that can focus on customers instead of systems. Operational agents within agentic AI can automate inventory, manage queues, update pricing and much more without waiting for human input. Meanwhile, development agents observe usage and behavior, generate workflow optimizations and propose logic updates for approval.
Most store technology systems today are reactive, but retail environments move faster than scripted responses can follow. If X, then Y—but only after X has already happened.
Agentic systems detect behavior, assess the situation and act in context. A typical example is if a scan avoidance pattern is detected at a self-checkout kiosk. An agentic AI agent evaluates the occurrence and responds appropriately by flagging the pattern and proposing a new checkout flow. The change is reviewed, approved and learned to be deployed system-wide just hours later.
Stores continue to struggle to deliver personalized experiences at scale. In-store personalization is often a one-size-fits-all initiative in a world where tailored experiences are the foundation of customer loyalty.
Agentic AI introduces real-time situational understanding with edge sensors that shift personalization from post-purchase to in-the-moment. They interpret interactions with AI agents guiding signage, adapting prompts or notifying associates, making shopping experiences reflexively relevant and always within brand-defined boundaries.
Balancing Humans And AI To Redefine Roles And Accelerate Results
Agentic AI empowers the retail workforce to focus on where they make the most significant impact. It optimizes performance and elevates human experiences at every level of the business.
A store manager's role evolves with agentic AI to approve decisions the system recommends instead of trying to understand and resolve individual flags at checkout. A merchandiser can make informed and strategic decisions to test layouts in digital twin environments driven by live behavior data instead of guessing. An associate isn't overwhelmed but empowered and guided by prompts that understand the situational context.
Agentic AI is transforming and accelerating retail roles with faster decision making, less time triaging issues and more time improving operations and solving pain points. Retailers realize better revenue, reduced cost and stronger loyalty through sustained, systematic momentum instead of conventional one-time updates.
Implementing Agentic AI
Some critical requirements must be met for retailers to implement agentic AI successfully. There must be a balance between humans and technology. Technology should extend autonomy and not replace it. People must remain in control to set policies, approve changes and govern outcomes. Connecting and communicating with employees will be a critical component. Creating a culture of transparency will help support adoption and empower store associates to become agentic AI tech champions.
Retailers should consider including associates from the beginning stages of planning to gauge their input and insights into applications. Explain why you are exploring and implementing new agentic AI technology, and emphasize how it will benefit jobs and the business. Allow employees to explore, test and provide feedback to ensure optimal application and support store associates to make them feel like they're part of the process instead of being replaced.
The infrastructure technology must also go beyond standard smart models to support agentic AI. Retailers need a modular platform built for change to support agentic AI technology. Key components of a dynamic infrastructure include an API-first, cloud-native platform that synchronizes updates, actions and learnings across every store, device and digital service.
The Autonomous Future Of Retail
Agentic AI is a retail revolution that is already underway. By empowering systems to detect, decide and evolve autonomously, retailers gain the ability to act with speed, precision and agility at every touchpoint. This means fewer customer and store disruptions, smarter operations and continuously improved experiences without the burden of requiring constant oversight.
Agentic AI provides clear payoffs with higher performance, more resilient teams and a sharper edge against the competition. Retailers that embrace agentic AI are setting the pace for agile and innovative retail operations and shopping journeys. In this new era, success is determined by mastering agentic AI orchestration.
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