Shelf Intelligence Reality Check: Why Only 9.1% of Retailers Are Ready

Shelf Intelligence Reality Check: Why Only 9.1% of Retailers Are Ready

May 14, 2026 · 49 min · Season 2 · Episode 7

About this episode

Greg Buzek discusses the current state of shelf intelligence in retail and the challenges retailers face in implementing it.

S2E7 Greg Buzek Breaks Down Shelf Intelligence - Computer Vision, RFID, and the Network Nobody's Talking About Every retailer says they're investing in shelf intelligence. Cameras, smart shelves, electronic shelf labels, computer vision, RFID, autonomous robots. The investment list has been the same for three years running. So why are only 9.1% of retailers actually running current computer vision, and only 12.2% running current ESLs? In this episode of Data Blades , Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Greg Buzek , President and Founder of IHL Group , to unpack the brand-new 2026 Retail Transformation Study: How Retail Leaders Outperform . It's the largest annual survey of retail technology leaders in the industry, and Greg's team interviewed more than 400 brands to build it. The data tells a story the industry hasn't fully reckoned with yet. Shelf intelligence applications in retail are not a hardware problem. The cameras are everywhere. The ESLs are on the shelves. The RFID tags are in the boxes. What's missing is the network, the edge compute, and the architectural roadmap to actually turn all of that hardware into intelligence. Greg walks through every layer of the…

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Host: Ricardo Belmar

Guest: Greg Buzek

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Organizations: IHL Group

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