The retail sector is no stranger to reinvention, and that constant state of evolution – and the innovation required to support it – was central to discussions among senior brand leaders at the 2026 Retail Technology Show (RTS) Press Day.
Held in central London last week, the 2026 RTS Press Day brought together leaders from High Street stalwarts, including River Island and Pentland Brands, alongside fashion marketplace Goddiva, luxury skincare brand Noble Panacea and hospitality operator Azzurri Group, the company behind casual dining brands including ASK Italian and Zizzi. They joined ex-Burberry and Selfridges executive Giles Smith, who moderated an exclusive panel exploring the key trends shaping retail and how the sector needs to adapt as it enters its next phase of evolution.
Beyond ‘shiny tech’ and back to customer-centricity
Despite the steady stream of headlines predicting the sector’s perpetual decline, there is a tension that underscores retail’s reality. The High Street may be under strain and margins increasingly tight, yet some brands continue to grow, new channels are emerging and technology is rapidly reshaping how the industry operates.
For the panel, however, success in retail is not being defined by AI alone, nor by those chasing the ‘shiniest’ technologies. Instead, it lies with businesses that remain focused on the core principle that has always underpinned the sector: understanding the customer.
“The brands that are absolutely killing it at the moment understand their customer. They understand their product… but they really understand their customers,” said Will Lockie, Global Digital Director at Noble Panacea. This need for customer-centricity was echoed by River Island’s Director of Technology, Meriel Neighbour, who described how the fashion retailer was undergoing a period of ‘re-establishing’ itself:
“It’s about understanding our customers and the relevance of where we are positioned. We’re going through that re-establishment – what River Island means, who our customers are – so we can make sure whatever channel we’re selling through, we are in the right place, at the right time, with [the] right product.”
Retail’s next winners will not necessarily ‘shout the loudest’ or be the most digitally advanced, according to the panel. They’ll come from brands that truly ‘get’ their customers and know what they stand for – which will become critical in remaining relevant in a fast-moving market where squeezed shoppers make demand volatile.
As customer obsession becomes the key battleground for gaining competitive advantage, RTS will host a stage entirely focused on Loyalty, CX and Personalisation. Chaired by Consumer Champion Martin Newman, the dedicated track on Day 1 will include insight from leaders including Currys’ Chief Services Officer, David Kramer, Harrods’ Chief Retail Officer, Mark Blundell, and Jeannette Copeland, Technology & Supply Chain Director at Ann Summers.
The need for “grounded AI” – not hype
AI, unsurprisingly, was central to the conversation at the 2026 RTS Press Day – but the panel remained grounded in how the tech should become an enabler for businesses, rather than a silver bullet or a catchall solution.
Instead, the speakers described it as a catalyst: a way to speed up development, automate repetitive tasks, improve service and solve long-standing operational problems more cheaply than before.
Ana Machado da Silva, VP of Digital Product at Pentland Brands, which operates Speedo, Kickers and Ellesse, for example, described how its business was looking to AI to “automate away repetitive tasks” to help customer engagement and care teams build better, closer relationships with shoppers, one to one. Meanwhile, Neighbour outlined how AI has been used to reduce service desk calls from River Island stores by 80% via its own version of ChatGPT, freeing up staff to focus on customer service delivery and CX.
Yathu Kanagaratnam, Head of Technology & AI at Goddiva, also discussed how AI is transforming the fashion marketplace’s user experience (UX), moving from search-led models to AI-powered recommendations and personalisation. Rather than just showing every possible result for a garment, the system now narrows results based on intent, event and fit. This isn’t just improving CX, it’s driving tangible commercial gains; since launching its AI solution, conversion rates have risen from 1.4% to 2.5%, helping to generate over £1million in revenue.
AI will remain a central theme running across RTS’ 2026 conference programme, as adoption accelerates and retailers seek to make sense of strategies for turning hype into execution. Challenger beauty brand Aroma Zone’s VP of Data and AI, Amine Mekouar, joins a panel on the agentic shift and the evolution it heralds on Day 1. Currys’ MD of AI & Monetisation, Ryan den Rooijen, will also focus on AI, outlining core strategies for deployments that deliver for customers, colleagues and the bottom line.
Across the exhibition floor, over 450+ tech providers will showcase solutions powering every part of retail, with a wealth of practical AI innovation on display. Invent.ai (stand J48) will unveil its latest multi-agentic AI platform, which helps retailers including Alo, Boots and Footasylum optimise inventory, pricing and assortment to maximise revenue and protect margins. Smart retail communications solution, x-hoppers (stand K20), will demo its innovations which help brands connect teams, combining wireless headsets and AI to put the customer at the heart of shopping journeys. Meanwhile, Vusion (stand P10), which works with Carrefour, Morrisons and Asda, will spotlight its vision for the connected shelf, blending Electronic Shelf Labels (ESLs), smart rails, computer vision and AI shelf cameras to turn the shelf-edge into an intelligent engagement platform.
Speed is of the essence
The other major shift is speed, which Smith neatly summarised; “Often, with AI, we’re talking about the solutions and all the ‘sexy’ stuff. But actually one of the biggest unlocks is just the enabling – being able to develop faster than ever by default [and] making it easier to make new capabilities happen without massive transformation budgets.”
Several panellists said tasks that once took weeks or months can now be prototyped in days. Website builds, integrations, testing and internal tools are all moving faster thanks to AI-assisted development and more flexible platforms. And that matters in a sector where change has historically been expensive, risky and slow.
Some of that newly found speed is helping free up budget to re-invest in the brand, said Machado da Silva, who explained this meant the output became less on tech and more on customer: “If tech is becoming cheaper, you can actually spend more on experience [and] brand storytelling.” Neighbour concurred, adding she hoped to see tech vendors at RTS 2026 highlighting “speed to market” solutions, because it’s “going to be hugely important for us all in retail to keep up with the changes.”
Composable technology platforms were highlighted by the panel as an example of the shift towards speed to market and agility. Legacy and monolithic structures which require long business cases, multi-year contracts and hard-to-reverse decisions are now giving way to more flexibility. Retailers can test more, compare more vendors and turn things off more quickly when they do not work, levelling the playing field for new tech entrants with truly innovative solutions.
At RTS 2026, a Start Up Superstars zone will spotlight new, disruptive tech from the start-up community, while the annual RTS Innovation Awards, announced at Retail’s BIG Party, sponsored by PMC on Day 1, will celebrate innovations helping brands move the dial on performance.
Stores mustn’t become innovation or experience black holes
In the same way the panellists pointed towards a ‘balanced’ approach to AI, the same nuanced sentiment was applied to the future of physical retail. Stores, the panel argued, are not being replaced by digital, but they are being redefined.
Jim Hingston, Azzurri Group’s Digital & Technology Director, said that the balance of tech versus experience should go even further, especially in settings like hospitality. “Hospitality is actually really simple, and I think tech should be relatively invisible,” he said, adding that customers value the social experience and human interaction over ‘loud’ technology when dining out. “We always look at whatever we’re implementing and ask ‘is it adding and supporting that experience’ rather than being front and centre,” he explained, “we’re definitely seeing almost a de-digitisation” rather than endlessly putting more tech in front of customers.
Yet, store technology can still feel underwhelming compared with the headlines, according to the panel. They suggested the real opportunity may not be flashy screens or techy in-store gimmicks but instead should focus on invisible technology that helps staff deliver better service, drives greater product availability, quieter personalisation and smarter selling – all without overwhelming the customer.
River Island, Pentland Brands, Goddiva, Noble Panacea and Azzurri Group were speaking at the RTS 2026 Press Day.
Returning to London’s ExCeL on 22 & 23 April with its new 2026 disco theme, RTS will bring together over 16,000 of retail’s movers and shakers. Connecting the industry’s sharpest minds with the hottest tech redefining the sector, RTS helps retailers harness disruption to fuel growth and power long-term performance.