How Qualcomm is catalyzing retail’s AI revolutionRetailIoTAI

With more places to shop than ever, physical stores are turning to AI and technology for a competitive edge.

That embrace of innovation is most evident at NRF 2025 - Retail's Big Show. Last year, the expo highlighted the potential impact of generative AI (GenAI) on the sales floor. When the show kicks off on January 12, the focus will be on AI-powered commercial solutions that improve the customer experience and the bottom line of retailers.

Changing the game starts with finding the right partner. As a leader in bringing connectivity and advanced AI capabilities to the edge, Qualcomm Technologies is well-suited to serve as a catalyst for the industry and will show off ways the industry can propel forward at NRF 2025. Having worked with the retail industry for years, we've developed tailored solutions able to meet the specific needs of retailers.

Here's an early look at some of the demos that show off our game-changing technology and our breadth of existing retail partners.

Digitizing the in-store experience from the shelves to point-of-sale

Enhancing the customer experience begins with ensuring shoppers can easily find what they need. This involves installing digital shelf systems that guide them precisely to the items they want. These systems also help associates and retailers keep track of inventory in real-time as items are taken off the shelves.

• EdgeSense: To bring this vision to life, digital solutions provider VusionGroup collaborated with us to utilize our Qualcomm Ultra-Low Power Bluetooth Low Energy System-on-Chip (SoC). This technology powers their shelf-edge EdgeSense solution, which offers product location, dynamic price changes, pick-to-light features and more.
• RFID Solutions: In another exciting collaboration, Impinj, a company that brings digital life to everyday things, demonstrates how RFID solutions can help customers find their desired sizes on the shelf. This can help make stores more shoppable and inventory management more efficient.
• FastSensor: For further retail operation improvements, AI analytics provider FastSensor utilizes Qualcomm cellular connectivity technology and AI to anonymously track customer numbers and their shopping pathways. This data helps retailers determine the optimal locations for inventory placement, enhancing the overall shopping experience.

Frictionless experiences with biometrics

Retailers and service providers, such as airports, are increasingly adopting biometric technologies to create seamless and frictionless experiences. These innovations allow consumers to grab what they need and go, enhancing the overall shopping experience. Our extensive work in security-focused biometric authentication technology forms the perfect foundation for these advancements.

• Palm biometrics: Enter the airport lounge experience where palm biometrics are being used to demonstrate frictionless interactions as part of a collaboration between a digital identity enablement provider (Authsignal), an airline (Air New Zealand), an authentication solution provider (Redrock Biometrics), and a payments platform (Telpo). Palm biometrics goes beyond fast payment transactions, showcasing a range of use cases from palm verification for access control to the lounge to being able to serve loyalty points offers to customers for duty-free items.​

Workflow automation with AI

• From the showroom floor: As labor shortages persist, the need for fast upskilling of front-line employees becomes even greater. Our customer Zebra Technologies, with its partners Target and Google Cloud, collaborated with Qualcomm Technologies to showcase the next level of GenAI maturity and workflow automation with guest-ready aisle demonstrations to elevate the in-store guest experience using the edge AI-enabled Qualcomm QCS6490 Processor.
• To back of house: Meanwhile, in the back of a store or in a warehouse, generative AI at the edge is revolutionizing how workers handle product knowledge and diagnostics with Qualcomm AI Inference Suite for On-Prem, an on-premises desktop or wall-mounted hardware solution, and Qualcomm AI Inference Suite for Cloud, a set of software and services for AI inferencing spanning from near-edge to cloud. The combination of these new offerings allows for small and large retailers and service providers to run custom and off-the-shelf AI applications on their premises, including generative workloads. Honeywell's mobile computers powered by Qualcomm QCM6490, are equipped with a multimodal AI virtual agent that is on hand to assist workers. This virtual agent can quickly search through large specification documents, allowing associates to retrieve the needed information via image, text or voice to assist customers more efficiently on site.
• Next-level on-device AI: ELO, a leading global supplier of point-of-sale (POS) systems, is teaming up with Iterate.ai, a provider of enterprise AI application platforms. Together, they're showcasing an innovative AI assistant for your POS devices powered by Qualcomm Technologies. This cutting-edge GenAI assistant, powered by a large language model, is designed to help troubleshoot device issues directly on the same device, offering real-time support and significantly enhancing the user experience.

Loss prevention and inventory tracking

• ELERA Security Suite System: Increasing and easing the flow of customers, while also keeping track of inventory and loss prevention is another area where AI can help retailers' overall operational efficiency. Retailers can now look to prevent theft by using Toshiba Global Commerce Solutions' ELERA Security Suite System with Tx EDGECam+ solution which is built on the Qualcomm QRB5165 SoC. The platform wields advanced Edge AI and computer vision cameras that can respond to incidents and even differentiate customers' personal effects from unpurchased store items. Ultimately, this system can help to reduce the retailers' loss and improve shopper experiences.

Enabling commerce beyond traditional retail

Technology innovations are propelling emerging markets into the AI era and there are two groundbreaking solutions in particular that are redefining commerce beyond traditional retail:

• AI-powered unattended store concept: J.P. Morgan Payments, a global leader across the payments ecosystem, and Ai-Fi, a leader in spatial intelligence, showcase a camera-first unattended retail solution combined with face biometrics payments utilizing J.P. Morgan's Qualcomm QCS6490 powered device. This enables shoppers to purchase items in-store anonymously and without waiting in line. Enroll once and enjoy a seamless shopping journey across multiple booths, without the need to re-enroll. Visit our booth 6713 and J.P. Morgan's booth 4044 to see how easy it is to "pay" with a smile.
• GenAI kiosk: Showcasing pharmacy use cases is an exciting, new Vietnam-based startup, GoTrust. Equipped with Voice UI, this Qualcomm QCS6490 chipset powered kiosk helps you locate the items you need in the store and enables biometric verification for palm payments and streamlining the checkout process.

Explore Qualcomm Technologies' NRF 2025 demos and partner collaborations

This was just a peek into what we've been helping our retail and IoT collaborators bring to the industry through GenAI, superior connectivity, and low-power, high-performance edge computing.

To experience all 14 interactive demonstrations of these game-changing solutions in action, be sure to stop by booth #6713 at NRF 2025. Also, don't miss seeing Qualcomm Technologies based cutting-edge solutions at 30+ partner booths around the show floor. See you in New York.

Learn more about Qualcomm Technologies' retail solutionsView the Qualcomm Partner Map for NRF 2025