Retail’s AI Future May Be Bigger and Slower Than You Think with EY and EY Studio+ | WRC 2026

About this episode

The episode discusses the potential future of AI in retail with insights from EY leaders.

In this Omni Talk Retail interview, recorded live from World Retail Congress 2026 in Berlin, Chris Walton speaks with Malin Andrée, Global Retail Industry Leader at EY, and Steven Bailey, Americas Retail Leader at EY Studio+, about how AI could fundamentally reshape the future of retail over the next decade. Drawing from EY’s latest retail futures report, the conversation explores four possible scenarios for how AI adoption may evolve across the industry: constrained growth, accelerated transformation, platform-driven disruption, and even a collapse scenario where power becomes concentrated among a handful of dominant technology players. Malin explains why retailers should stop trying to predict a single future and instead focus on building “no regret moves” that prepare organizations for multiple outcomes. Steven expands on where AI is already creating operational impact today, particularly across merchandising, personalization, workforce scheduling, and agentic commerce. The discussion also examines why customer experience and human interaction still matter deeply in a world increasingly shaped by automation. While AI may transform workflows and decision-making, both leaders…

People in this episode

Host: Chris Walton

Guests: Malin Andrée, Steven Bailey

Topics covered

• AI in retail
• future scenarios
• customer experience
• operational impact
• agentic commerce

Keywords

• AI adoption
• retail transformation
• merchandising
• personalization
• workforce scheduling
• consumer connection

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: EY, EY Studio+

Places: Berlin

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