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Retail\u2019s AI conversation is starting to feel oddly familiar. Consumers and retailers are moving at different speeds. This time, though, it\u2019s the inverse of what typically happens. In the case of AI, consumers are demonstrating a readiness for technology that retailers haven\u2019t been able to match.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the core tension running through\u00a0an extremely insightful new piece of research conducted by global AI and tech acceleration partner CI&T, called the \u2018Retail Tech Reality Check\u2019<\/em>. Built on\u00a0data from 2,000 consumers across the UK and Ireland, it makes for a read that may well challenge many of your preconceived ideas about the technology currently fuelling the retail industry.<\/p>\n Retail Gazette got the chance to sit down with\u00a0Melissa Minkow, Global Director, Retail Strategy & Insights at CI&T, to unpack what the findings actually mean in practice, beyond the headlines, and where retailers are perhaps getting in their own way. \u201cIt\u2019s been a pivotal year,\u201d she says. \u201cI know we\u2019re in unprecedented times over and over and over again, but it has been a really pivotal year from an economic perspective for consumers.\u201d She points to changing spending behaviour, shifting promotional rhythms, and a UK consumer who is increasingly comfortable adopting new behaviours.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re kind of at a tipping point, and AI is fuelling it. 64 per cent of consumers\u00a0say that they think retailers should use AI to improve the shopping experience. This is\u00a0six percentage points higher\u00a0than what US consumers said,\u201d she notes. \u201cThat alone was surprising. I didn\u2019t really expect the warmer welcome over here!\u201d<\/p>\n That \u2018warmer welcome\u2019 challenges a narrative that\u2019s crept into retail\u2019s AI discourse that the tech potential exists, but consumers are sceptical. In reality, consumer scepticism is more nuanced than that. People can be worried about privacy and still want convenience. They can distrust a retailer\u2019s data handling and still use ChatGPT to shortcut research. They can be cautious and curious at the same time which, frankly, describes the modern shopper more accurately than any single label does.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cAnd 61 per cent\u00a0say that they have already used AI tools while shopping,\u201d Minkow says, pointing to another revelation that hit hard. From her perspective, this tracks with a UK market that has often been faster to adopt digital commerce behaviours in certain categories. \u201cI\u2019ve repeatedly seen that there is faster ecommerce adoption here, like grocery,\u201d she said, contrasting it with the US, where ecommerce grocery still lags behind expectations. The implication is that if the UK has already normalised certain digital habits, it makes sense that AI-assisted shopping will slip into everyday behaviour faster too.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s the wider mood. Minkow describes seeing the numbers around spending mindsets as revealing, even if the story is broadly familiar. \u201cIt was really high percentages of consumers just saying they\u2019re pulling back on spend, and anticipating prices going up,\u201d she notes. The difference with data, of course, is that it removes your ability to downplay what you\u2019d rather not deal with. When the majority of shoppers tell you they\u2019re budgeting harder, you can\u2019t pretend loyalty will carry you through on relationship alone.<\/p>\n Yet some retailers simply don\u2019t have the internal muscle yet. \u201cThey may not have the resources, they may not have the workforce that totally understands all of its capabilities,\u201d Minkow says. Some are wary of early adoption because they\u2019ve watched hype cycles play out badly in the past. \u201cBeing an early adopter in retail is worrying sometimes,\u201d she adds. \u201cWe saw what happened with the Metaverse. Sometimes playing it safe can really pay off.\u201d<\/p>\n But she draws a crucial distinction. AI looks less like a trend to her, and more like a competitive advantage that will compound. \u201cI\u2019ve even been surprised at my own excitement around AI and not thinking about it as a trend, but as a really crucial competitive advantage for retailers,\u201d she says. That\u2019s the point retailers need to sit with. Metaverse was a bet. AI is increasingly becoming infrastructure.<\/p>\n Of course, for those looking to truly make meaningful change in their organisation, the data has to be present and accurate. \u201cData is the foundation for AI,\u201d Minkow says, \u201cand you\u2019d be surprised how many retailers don\u2019t have their data in a good place to fully leverage AI. It\u2019s not clean, it\u2019s not streamlined, it\u2019s very siloed.\u201d<\/p>\n This data problem explains why so many AI initiatives get stuck at pilot stage. If your product data is inconsistent, your customer data fragmented, and your inventory logic unreliable, AI amplifies it and even leads to potentially damaging and incorrect conclusions.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also worth unpacking what consumers even mean when they say they want retailers to \u2018use AI\u2019. The phrase is so broad it\u2019s almost useless, like digital transformation or innovation, until you pin it down to a job to be done. For Minkow, the consumer definition of AI is remarkably simple. Make shopping easier and take away unwanted friction.<\/p>\n \u201cThe ways that they want retailers to leverage it really come down to a convenient, quick, efficient, easy shopping experience,\u201d she says. \u201cConsumers are so mission oriented. They just need decision support and they need help feeling certain about that.\u201d<\/p>\n Minkow also makes an important point about retail\u2019s track record of building the wrong things. \u201cPreviously retail has been kind of proactive in the wrong directions,\u201d she says, \u201cwhere you\u2019ll see retailers offering capabilities that the consumer doesn\u2019t care about.\u201d If you\u2019re a retailer and your AI strategy starts with \u2018what can we build?\u2019 rather than \u2018what frustrates customers today?\u2019, you\u2019re already drifting.<\/p>\n Of course, privacy is still a headline concern. Especially in a UK retail market where high-profile incidents have made data security feel personal. But Minkow flags something that retailers should find even more unsettling, the fear that AI will be used to manipulate.<\/p>\n \u201cPrivacy is a huge concern,\u201d she said, \u201cbut the secondary most common concern was this idea of being upsold or cross sold and spending too much, or the AI being biased.\u201d<\/p>\n If AI recommendations feel like they\u2019re engineered to push volume rather than help the customer, people will clock it, and they\u2019ll resent it. Minkow\u2019s advice here is direct: \u201cRetailers really need to be transparent. Explain that this is truly intended to help you maximise your spend. It\u2019s not about getting you to spend more, it\u2019s about getting you to spend smarter.\u201d<\/p>\n This is where the ethics conversation becomes commercially relevant. Bias doesn\u2019t need to be malicious to be damaging. All it needs to be is noticeable. If the shopper feels nudged, the system stops feeling helpful and starts feeling suspicious.<\/p>\n The report also explores agentic AI, and it\u2019s one of the areas where the consumer data is more advanced than the industry expects. Minkow is clear that most shoppers don\u2019t know the term. \u201c62 per cent\u00a0had not heard the term agentic AI before,\u201d she says, so CI&T defined it plainly. An assistant that can order items based on your preferences and purchase history.<\/p>\n What happened next is the interesting part: \u201c58 per cent\u00a0were interested once they read our definition,\u201d she says, and the strongest interest was in routine purchases. The items people would happily put on autopilot. That\u2019s where agentic AI becomes useful, in the weekly admin of life.<\/p>\n And that ties to one of Minkow\u2019s most pointed observations. For many people, shopping isn\u2019t a hobby, it\u2019s just a task. \u201cFor a lot of consumers right now, retail is admin. Shopping is admin,\u201d she says. That\u2019s a brutal sentence if you\u2019re a brand that has spent the last decade talking about experience as if everyone wants to be delighted every time they buy toothpaste.<\/p>\n She also challenged a belief that still sits deep in ecommerce thinking, that more time on site is always good. \u201cA lot of times retailers have thought that the amount of time a consumer spends on your site is like the higher the time, the better the experience,\u201d she notes. \u201cAnd what I\u2019ve tried to say is no, the faster the experience, the shorter the experience, the higher the NPS.\u201d In other words, sometimes engagement is just trapped customers.<\/p>\n On physical retail, the report pushes back on another assumption that stores are fading into irrelevance. They\u2019re not, they\u2019re being reassigned. Minkow wasn\u2019t surprised that shoppers still want to start journeys in-store across key categories because the reasons are human. Proximity, routine, and touch-and-feel certainty. However, agentic AI can still permeate and augment this experience to make it more efficient.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m ready to start seeing pick up areas that say, \u2018agent bought online, pick up in store\u2019,\u201d she laughs. \u201cIt\u2019s a little different than buy online, pick up in store. We are going to have to go into brick and mortar and represent ourselves after an agent has represented us.\u201d<\/p>\n As the conversation wraps, Minkow is keen to leave readers with some vital advice about what they can do today, to start aligning with the kind of future she\u2019s discussed.<\/p>\n \u201cData is the foundation,\u201d she says. \u201cSo many retailers are taking manual approaches. They\u2019re still in literal spreadsheets. The faster you can get your data in a position to be easily automated, streamlined, secure, it will benefit your whole business no matter what. It literally benefits every single department. Get your data ducks in a row!\u201d<\/p>\n If you want AI to be more than a nice pilot and a few internal experiments, it\u2019s the only place to start.<\/p>\n To dig into the full findings, including the deeper breakdowns of consumer behaviours, concerns, and expectations, read CI&T\u2019s full \u2018Retail Tech Reality Check\u2019 report.<\/em><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.retailgazette.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/1580095404067-300x300.jpeg\")
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