Let’s be honest: the retail sector is undergoing such a profound transformation that it is often difficult to distinguish between what is just hype and what will actually drive profit.
Today, many retailers feel forced to choose between investing in advanced technologies or preserving the authenticity of human contact, fearing that one excludes the other. However, NRF 2025 drove home a simple concept: when well-designed, AI doesn’t replace humans. It sets them free.
We attended NRF 2025 in New York to gather key takeaways to guide your strategy towards tangible growth. The goal? To transform Artificial Intelligence and automation into allies that boost sales and effectiveness, without sacrificing the quality of relationships.
2025 is set to be the year of Agentic AI. And while the physical store is increasingly becoming a digital hub, the real differentiator will be operational elasticity: the ability to quickly adapt processes, inventory, and service to market uncertainties.
The Rise of Agentic AI: Your New Digital Concierge
Until recently, artificial intelligence was treated as something interesting but experimental. NRF 2025 marked the beginning of a new phase: the Agentic Era.
We are no longer talking about simple chatbots, but assistants capable of learning from behaviours, interpreting goals, and carrying out tasks more autonomously, all while staying within the rules and governance defined by the company. In other words, they don't just respond: they help make things happen.
This paradigm shift is already delivering concrete results. The reason is simple: automation isn't just about saving time; it’s about enabling personalisation at scale, something that was a luxury yesterday but is a competitive necessity today.
The goal, therefore, isn't to "do more AI", but to ensure technology works with us, maintaining a balance between digital efficiency and human significance: less friction in processes, more genuine attention to the customer relationship.
To get there, however, one step is inevitable: start experimenting within the company with clear, measurable use cases, involving stakeholders from the start to understand what works, what needs correcting, and what needs scaling.
Google: Agents, AI Search, and Connected Stores
A strong signal also comes from Google Cloud. At NRF 2025, they demonstrated how AI agents and AI-enhanced search are becoming concrete tools capable of making operations more efficient and the customer experience more personalised.
The message was delivered through an interlocking approach: Agentspace as a base to build and orchestrate agents, Vertex AI Search for Commerce to improve product discovery (helping people find what they are looking for faster), and Connected Stores to better link in-store events with digital systems, making the journey between online and offline truly coherent.
If you are working on unified commerce, the takeaway is simple: when agents, intelligent search, and connected stores work together, friction along the customer journey decreases, interaction relevance increases, and it becomes easier to make rapid operational decisions without creating new silos.
Unified Commerce: Blurring the Lines
One of the most surprising statistics to emerge from NRF 2025 is that nearly 48% of consumers used brand apps directly inside physical stores during the last holiday season to search for products, manage wishlists, or access personalised offers. This confirms that the boundary between online and offline is now invisible: the customer sees a single brand, not separate channels.
Leading companies are responding by transforming stores into digitally enriched experience hubs, where smart displays, augmented reality, and in-store navigation kiosks facilitate the purchasing journey. In this scenario, inventory automation and data unification become fundamental. This is a lesson championed by Shopify, which is betting big on Shopify POS and shared a map to explore iconic brands in Manhattan that have chosen Shopify to connect online and offline.
Integrating warehouse and sales systems (for example, through a connected POS) means being able to serve customers anywhere in the store, keeping availability, pricing, orders, and returns aligned across all touchpoints.
Retail Tour in New York: Brands Choosing Shopify POS
During NRF 2025, Shopify brought the concept of unified commerce to life through a shared map inviting retailers and partners to experience it directly in-store. It was a proper tour through SoHo, Nolita, and Spring Street, designed to observe how iconic brands are using Shopify POS as a single director for both online and physical retail.
In stores like Away, Everlane, Glossier, Mejuri, Alo Yoga, A.P.C., or Allbirds, Shopify POS functions as a natural extension of eCommerce. Staff can access stock, orders, and customer profiles in real-time, sell anywhere in the store, manage cross-channel returns, and offer consistent service, regardless of where the purchase originated.
The visit to the Shopify NY Space on Greene Street was truly unique, a living space designed to host events, meetings and, on rotation, brands that use Shopify. Here, unified commerce takes shape in an even more tangible way, acting as a true experiential hub.
The stores highlighted by Shopify at NRF 2025:
Away Luggage address 364 Lafayette St.
Goriana address 266 Elizabeth St
Everlane address 28 Prince St
Mejuri address 42 Prince St
OAK + FORT address 68 Spring St
allbirds address 73 Spring St
Glossier address 72 Spring St
PAIGE Soho address 460 Brome St
Alo Yoga address 96 Spring St
A.P.C. address 131 Morcer St
Jenni Kayne Home Soho address 121 Greene St
Sporty & Rich address 133 Greene St
Shopify NY Space 131 Greene St
Automation that Frees Human Talent
Contrary to widespread fears, automation in 2025 is not aiming to replace people, but to empower them. Forward-thinking retailers are using AI to handle administrative and routine tasks, freeing up precious time so staff can focus on what really matters: listening, advising, solving problems, and building relationships.
This approach strengthens both culture and efficiency. When technology absorbs repetitive tasks, people can bring their value where it makes the difference: the experience. And in a market dominated by speed, this very combination becomes decisive.
This is where the concept of operational elasticity comes into play: the ability to rapidly adapt operations, inventory, and staff to demand fluctuations. It is a competence rather than a function. And it is what protects profitability when the market accelerates, changes direction, or becomes unpredictable.
Prepare for the Future with a Strategic Ecosystem
To win the challenge of 2025, adopting a technology is not enough. You need to embrace an adaptive business ecosystem.
Collaboration between platforms and technology partners is what allows innovation at a speed that is difficult to achieve alone, especially when connecting data, processes, and customer experience without creating unnecessary complexity.
Whether it is about intercepting new habits (such as social commerce and new generations) or protecting data and trust with solid governance practices, the point remains the same: transforming disruption into an opportunity for reinvention.
In other words, the winner isn't the one who "does more AI", but the one who uses it to make the experience simpler and the organisation more elastic. 2025 will not reward perfect projects, but those who experiment well, measure quickly, and scale what works.