04/15/2025 | News release | Archived content
Imagine a future where decisions that once took days or even weeks happen in seconds, managed flawlessly by intelligent systems without human oversight. Perhaps it's a store manager who previously spent up to 40% of their time sitting in their office reviewing reports. They now instead see an alert on their phone as they walk through the store, ask a question on that smartphone, and receive detailed guidance on how to act within minutes. Or marketers wanting to update thousands of product pages with new seasonal information. Or customer service dealing with the spike of returns post-holidays, using AI to handle the influx of initial requests.
AI Agents are autonomous systems capable of making recommendations or decisions, adapting in real-time to changing situations, and solving multi-step problems based on predefined goals and contextual understanding. What previously took minutes, hours or even days can be solved in seconds and minutes with high accuracy and at a low cost.
Your competitors are already doing this. Leading retailers like Walmart and Amazon are rapidly deploying autonomous AI systems, fundamentally reshaping the way they operate, manage supply chains, and connect with consumers.
The potential financial impact is significant. Gartner forecasts that by 2028, AI agents will autonomously handle about 15% of everyday business decisions. In a labor-intensive industry where 20-30% of expenses go to labor, this represents the opportunity to drive up to 4.5% in labor efficiency. And it's not just about savings; front-line employees can use these systems to improve the customer experience and drive higher incrementality and customer preference. The reality is stark: adapt quickly or risk being left behind by competitors who have already begun harnessing this transformative technology.
Companies that hesitate to adopt AI agents risk losing substantial market share to their competitors who move quickly. Take JPMorgan Chase, for example. Their AI-driven contract review system now processes over 12,000 contracts each year at a remarkable 99.9% accuracy-achieved through continuous learning over several years. Bain Capital Ventures reports that early adopters, those investing before 2026, will likely control 73% of the projected $164 billion retail AI market by 2030, thanks to unique data advantages and ecosystems that lock in customers and partners.
The lesson? According to PwC, companies moving early experience six times faster returns on their AI investments, creating a nearly insurmountable competitive edge. They are able to capture the financial benefits of their efforts and use that to increase their competitiveness.
The retail industry is at a pivotal moment, with AI adoption separating market leaders from laggards. The financial stakes are staggering: McKinsey estimates generative AI alone could unlock $240-$390 billion in value for retailers, equivalent to a 1.2-1.9% margin boost industry-wide. While Bain & Company further highlight that AI-driven personalization can lift revenues by 5-10%, with conversational AI assistants and dynamic pricing emerging as high-impact use cases.
Waiting too long to adopt AI agents can create serious obstacles:
Revenue Loss and Missed Efficiency Gains. Retailers that delay AI adoption risk significant financial losses, as early adopters are already capturing 5-10% revenue increases through AI-powered personalization and 30-40% productivity gains in marketing.
Data Issues: Legacy systems often cannot handle the immense data flows required for real-time autonomous decisions. Delaying adoption of modern systems leads to increased data and tech debt.
Competition for talent: Companies slow to adopt advanced AI face serious talent shortages. Nearly 90% of AI engineers prefer organizations already using sophisticated AI technologies.
Partnership Pressures: By 2026, suppliers will expect partners to have interoperable AI agent capabilities. Companies lacking these capabilities will find themselves excluded from key partnerships.