Retail
PILOT SEASON IS OVER
UK tech retailers are full of great ideas, but too many get stuck in endless pilots that never scale. The result is missed efficiency gains and lost revenue. Turning proven concepts into real, operational change is now essential for anyone who wants to stay competitive, says Tony Healy, CITO at Six Degrees.
U Tony Healy, CITO at Six Degrees
K retailers have moved quickly on AI. Throughout 2025, most invested at pace, experimenting with tools,
platforms, and early deployments. Independent research conducted for our Retail Whitepaper confirms that confidence in AI is now high across the sector. However, beneath that confidence sits a growing disconnect between ambition and execution. Retailers largely agree on where AI can create
value. What remains far less clear is how to operationalise it at scale. The result is an emerging AI ambition gap, strong belief in potential outcomes set against far more cautious, fragmented delivery. When asked where AI could have the greatest
impact, retailers consistently highlight high- value use cases. Customer insights and behavioural analysis top the list for around a third of respondents, closely followed by
6 | January/February 2026
demand forecasting and fraud detection. These are not peripheral improvements. Done well, they directly influence margin, availability, stock flow, and customer lifetime value. In a challenging economic climate, they should be board-level priorities. Actual deployments tell a different story. Most
AI implementations remain focused on contained, entry-level use cases such as customer service automation, predictive maintenance, and in-store experience enhancements. These projects are often easier to deploy in isolation and can deliver incremental improvements, particularly for organisations early in their AI journey. They matter, and the effort required should not be underestimated. However, they rarely deliver the scale of
commercial impact that boards now expect, or that IT leaders themselves are targeting. As we move into 2026, the central question is no longer
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