Artificial intelligence has already made its way into retail, but testing a tool is one thing. Getting it to transform the way a business operates is another.
More companies are using AI to analyze sales, better understand customers, manage inventory, and produce content. The real challenge begins afterward: moving from pilot projects to systems that can work every day and across an entire operation.
That is where the potential lies. According to McKinsey, generative AI could generate between $240 billion and $390 billion in annual value for the retail sector, provided companies can move the technology beyond experimentation.
The problem, however, is not necessarily the technology itself. Companies need to connect AI with the systems they already use, data that may be spread across different platforms, and processes involving thousands of employees and locations.
In a store, for example, a tool may identify that a product is missing from a shelf. But the real challenge starts afterward: determining what the employee should do, communicating it at the right moment, and confirming that the issue has been resolved.
That is where the role of AI begins to change.
From analyzing what is happening to helping solve it
Effie.ai, a Chicago-based startup, is developing AI tools focused specifically on retail store operations.
The company works with systems that can analyze what is happening at points of sale, identify problems, and suggest actions for teams responsible for store operations.
The difference from a traditional system is that the technology is not designed simply to provide information.
Nataliia Freidrich
Instead of simply showing that a product is misplaced or that a promotion is not being executed correctly, for example, the system can identify the situation, establish priorities, and guide employees on what to do next.
The company recently brought on Nataliia Freidrich as Strategy Advisor. She has more than 15 years of experience in revenue management, commercial operations, and transformation, with previous experience at companies including Mondelēz International and AB InBev.
Her appointment comes as consumer companies look to move from AI experiments toward applications that can be integrated directly into daily operations.
The data illustrates the size of that gap.
According to Deloitte, only 25% of organizations have managed to move at least 40% of their AI projects from the testing stage into production. More than half expect to reach that level within the following three to six months.
In retail, the challenge can be even greater because these tools need to work across different stores, cities, products, and market conditions.
Effie.ai is focusing its technology on one of the more repetitive parts of this process: visits by teams that monitor and manage product presence inside stores.
The company reports a case involving Nestlé in which its system reduced the time product representatives spent at each visit by 56%, while reducing supervisors’ workload by 55%.
The goal of these systems is to allow employees to spend less time collecting information and preparing reports and more time addressing problems inside the store.
That opportunity becomes particularly relevant in an industry where small differences can be repeated thousands of times. An out-of-stock product, an incorrect price, or a promotion that is not properly displayed may seem like minor issues in one store, but they can become significant when repeated across hundreds or thousands of locations.
The next stage, therefore, is not simply about introducing more AI into stores.
The challenge will be connecting these tools with existing systems, understanding what is happening in real time, and helping employees make decisions while they are still on the sales floor.
For companies such as Effie.ai, that gap represents an opportunity: moving from AI that explains what is happening to AI that can also help determine what should happen next.
Whether that shift succeeds will help determine whether artificial intelligence remains another experimental tool for retailers or becomes an integrated part of everyday operations.
