NRF 2026: Familiar Faces, AI Dominance and Improved Outlooks

Another NRF Big Show behind us. The annual “biggest retail gathering in the world” continues to evolve and grow – as many as 5 full days depending on when you start your Big Show experience. McMillanDoolittle and Ebeltoft Group were well represented among the 30,000+ attendees and exhibitors, including an on stage presentation by our Brazilian colleague Eduardo Yamashita. As always, the Big Show means reconnecting with old friends, gauging where we’re at with the hottest retail and technology trends and a barometer for the year to come in retail.

Everywhere you turned AI dominated the NRF program content and exhibitors alike on the massive trade floor. As an industry, we’re still wrapping our arms around AI-driven change, no longer looming in the horizon but happening now. In one session Estee Lauder’s CIO stated our industry’s challenge succinctly: “we’re in a scale and grow phase”. The AI use cases are emerging, and we expect to see a succession of use cases throughout the year, in all functional areas of our retail organizations. Here are a few takeaways we had:

• Quick AI wins (in no specific order): content production/management, order management, chatbots and agents (“Ask Ralph, or “Milo” at Lowes, “Chat CTC” at Canadian Tire) – associate and shopper facing agents
• AI success criteria and process: look to simplify, overcommunicate internally, clearly define the problem, establish success metrics and be ready to refine the flow and ownership of information
• Team building to encourage AI adoption — put early adopters across teams to help others; and think about how teams of the future will integrate AI agents with human leadership
• Product discovery – how consumers find what they want – will change a lot. One of the best examples was AI-generated product detail pages (PDP), from the technology company UST – taking existing visual assets and generating thousands of pages at a fraction of the cost.

Is your management team or board asking for your AI strategy? McMillanDoolittle’s AI Immersion Workshop is designed to efficiently facilitate C-level discussion to align corporate strategy and AI governance and initiatives to deliver business results. Ask us for more details.

Image Source: Jason Dixson Photography

While not as prominent as in recent years, retail media networks (RMN) continue to change retailer business models. The intersection of RMNs, marketplaces and AI will be an interesting set of trends to follow. Lowes SVP Digital, Joe Cano, shared their journey to launch a digital marketplace in 2025, and how 3P sellers are driving 28% of RMN revenue already. Overall, he stated that they beat their aggressive plan by 30%, with next steps being focused on agentic commerce, more content and the integration of Milo, Lowes AI agent.

Image Source: NRF

Putting 2025 to rest appears to have buoyed the retail outlook among those we talked to. The general mood of the retail industry appears to be bullish compared to last year’s uncertainty. We heard from many executives who were readying themselves for new projects this year, which is a welcome relief for the entire industry. We look forward to an exciting and ever evolving year in retail.