The Augmented Associate: Why AI-Ready Retailers Are Hiring More

The Augmented Associate: Why AI-Ready Retailers Are Hiring More

S2E8 Greg Buzek of IHL Group on the AI Hiring Gap the Retail Industry Got Backwards For two years, every conference stage and every headline has told you the same thing. AI is coming for retail jobs. The robots are taking over. Store headcount is doomed. The data tells a completely different story, and it is not close. In part two of our three-part AI in Retail series, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit back down with Greg Buzek [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/], President and Chief AI Orchestrator at IHL Group [https://www.ihlservices.com/], to take apart the doom narrative with hard numbers from IHL’s 2026 Retail Transformation Study. The retailers deploying the most AI in their stores are adding store associates at nearly double the rate of everyone else. Edge-current retailers plan to grow store headcount at 70% versus 36% for their peers. The fastest-growing retailers are 115% more likely to be adding people, not cutting them. This is the augmented associate model, and it’s the through-line of the whole episode. The winning retailers treat AI as a tool to augment store associates rather than replace them. Greg traces it all the way back to self-checkout 25 years ago, when Kroger trained its best people to teach customers and then moved staff to fresh-food profit centers, while Kmart simply bolted in machines, cut labor, and flamed out. Same technology, opposite outcomes. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: ·       The self-checkout history that predicts who wins and loses with AI in retail ·       Why store associates blame every staffing change on AI, and the over-communication fix that works ·       The augmented associate toolkit: voice in an associate’s native language, mobile devices, assisted selling, and instant order history ·       Why edge computing, not the cloud, is quietly deciding which retailers can scale AI in the store ·       The two things AI needs more than anything else: the network and clean data ·       How buy online pickup in store, returns, and last mile delivery are all adding store associates instead of removing them ·       Why roughly 18% of retail sales now run through reverse logistics, and where the margin recovery hides ·       The restaurant handheld lesson Greg has tracked for 15 years, and why turning tables twice as fast drops straight to the bottom line Greg’s bottom line lands hard. The retailers cutting store associates to look efficient on a spreadsheet are the ones falling behind. The winners are connecting store associates to data, handing them better tools than the customer walks in with, and getting the store network right before anything else. If you make one retail workforce decision this year, this episode is the one to hear first. Resource Links How Retail Leaders Outperform - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/] Shelf Intelligence Report - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/shelf-intelligence-report-rebuilding-retail-relationships-through-automation/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/shelf-intelligence-report-rebuilding-retail-relationships-through-automation/] Adapt or Be Outpaced - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/] Fixing Inventory Distortion - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/fixing-inventory-distortion-whos-winning-whos-failing-whats-working/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/fixing-inventory-distortion-whos-winning-whos-failing-whats-working/] Closing the Execution Gap - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/closing-the-execution-gap/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/closing-the-execution-gap/] Support Our Sponsors This Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub [https://www.retailclub.com/]. Retail Club AI Festival, September 22–24 in Huntington Beach. Join 2,000 retail leaders for a fully outdoor, beachside deep dive into how AI is reshaping retail. Qualified retailers and brands can attend with free tickets and up to $1,250 in travel reimbursement. Head to retailclub.com [https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast] to learn more. https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast [https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast] Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation! Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ [https://retailrazor.com/] Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com [https://retailrazor.substack.com] Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube [https://go.retailrazor.com/utube] About Our Guests Greg Buzek [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/]. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/] IHL Group [https://www.ihlservices.com/]. https://www.ihlservices.com/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/] RetailROI [https://www.retailroi.org/]. https://www.retailroi.org [https://www.retailroi.org] Greg Buzek is the Founder, President and Principal Analyst of IHL Group, one of the most respected retail technology research firms in the world. IHL's annual Retail Transformation Study is the largest survey of retail technology leaders in the industry, covering more than 400 brands across every retail segment. Greg is also the founder of Retail Orphan Initiative (Retail ROI), which this week surpassed $6 million in total grants to help children around the world through the industry's Super Saturday campaign. Noted by RIS News as one of the Top 10 Influentials in Retail and the National Retail Federation [https://nrf.com/] as one of “The List of People Shaping Retail’s Future [https://nrffoundation.org/honors/honorees/list]“, he has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from The Ohio State University, and 30 years of experience in retail market analysis, business planning, product development, and consulting with Fortune 500 companies. He is also a member of the Top 100 Retail Influencers from RETHINK Retail [https://rethink.industries/]. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:40) Show Intro (03:32) Welcome back, Greg Buzek! (04:22) Self Checkout Lessons (08:11) Augmented Associate Tools (10:17) Voice and Language Support (11:54) Edge Computing Advantage (13:18) Network and Clean Data (14:31) Enabling Tech and IT Spend (16:25) Mobile Tools and Pickup Wins (18:25) Last Mile Delivery Staffing (21:24) Making the Investment Case (23:16) Returns and Fulfillment Focus (25:42) Restaurant Speed Example (29:15) Key Takeaways and Wrap (31:27) Show Close About your Hosts Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights: Ricardo Belmar [https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar] is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 [https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/profiles/view/3427] has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation [https://business.gmu.edu/retail/]and the Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community]. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden [https://bit.ly/twCasey], is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock [https://www.luxlock.com/]. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community] advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!  Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

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

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 [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/], President and Founder of IHL Group [https://www.ihlservices.com/], 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 modern shelf intelligence stack, the order he'd deploy it in if he were sitting in a retail CIO's chair this year, and the specific ROI numbers that separate the retailers winning at shelf intelligence from the ones still talking about it. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: * What shelf intelligence actually means in 2026 and why the definition has expanded beyond "the manager walking the aisles"  * Why the network is the deciding factor for every shelf intelligence deployment, regardless of which sensors you choose  * How RFID sales winners outperform peers by 6.5x, and why Walmart is now tagging items under a dollar  * Why computer vision deployment is still under 10% across retail, and the hidden reason most pilots stall  * The controversial story behind electronic shelf labels, COVID, and the union pushback that's happening right now  * How facial recognition reduces theft by 74%, and the cultural reasons it has not gone mainstream in the US  * Why 80% of grocery SKUs sell less than one unit a week, and what that means for shelf intelligence and assortment strategy  * Greg's recommended deployment order for retail CIOs: network first, then edge, then ESLs, then RFID, then computer vision   Resource Links How Retail Leaders Outperform - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/how-retail-leaders-outperform/] Shelf Intelligence Report - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/shelf-intelligence-report-rebuilding-retail-relationships-through-automation/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/shelf-intelligence-report-rebuilding-retail-relationships-through-automation/] Adapt or Be Outpaced - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/adapt-or-be-outpaced-tech-imperative-for-retails-midmarket/] Fixing Inventory Distortion - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/fixing-inventory-distortion-whos-winning-whos-failing-whats-working/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/fixing-inventory-distortion-whos-winning-whos-failing-whats-working/] Closing the Execution Gap - https://www.ihlservices.com/product/closing-the-execution-gap/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/product/closing-the-execution-gap/] Support Our Sponsors This Episode is Brought to You By RetailClub [https://www.retailclub.com/]. Join 2,000 retail leaders at RetailClub AI Festival, September 22–24 in Huntington Beach. Dive deep into how AI is reshaping retail while soaking up the sun at a fully outdoor, beachside venue. Decision-makers from retailers and brands can attend with free tickets and up to $1,250 in travel reimbursement. Head to retailclub.com [https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast] to learn more. https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast [https://retailclub.com/retail-razor-podcast] Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation! Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ [https://retailrazor.com/] Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com [https://retailrazor.substack.com] Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube [https://go.retailrazor.com/utube] About Our Guests Greg Buzek [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/]. https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregbuzek/] IHL Group [https://www.ihlservices.com/]. https://www.ihlservices.com/ [https://www.ihlservices.com/] RetailROI [https://www.retailroi.org/]. https://www.retailroi.org [https://www.retailroi.org] Greg Buzek is the Founder, President and Principal Analyst of IHL Group, one of the most respected retail technology research firms in the world. IHL's annual Retail Transformation Study is the largest survey of retail technology leaders in the industry, covering more than 400 brands across every retail segment. Greg is also the founder of Retail Orphan Initiative (Retail ROI), which this week surpassed $6 million in total grants to help children around the world through the industry's Super Saturday campaign. Noted by RIS News [https://risnews.com/] as one of the Top 10 Influentials in Retail and the National Retail Federation [https://nrf.com/] as one of “The List of People Shaping Retail’s Future [https://nrffoundation.org/honors/honorees/list]“, he has a Masters Degree in Business Administration (MBA) from The Ohio State University, and 30 years of experience in retail market analysis, business planning, product development, and consulting with Fortune 500 companies. He is also a member of the Top 100 Retail Influencers from RETHINK Retail [https://rethink.industries/]. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:46) Show Intro (03:45) Welcome Greg Buzek! (06:04) What Shelf Intelligence Means (08:51) ESLs and Union Pushback (09:38) RFID Wins for Inventory (13:14) Computer Vision and Robots (16:00) Facial Recognition Debate (19:22) ROI and Winner Benchmarks (23:31) Customer Expectations and Stockouts (26:11) Inventory Accuracy Crisis (26:50) Shelf Intelligence Value (29:44) Fashion Returns Problem (32:18) Grocery SKU Overload (37:56) Vendor Managed Compliance (40:16) Butter Stock Club (41:46) CIO Roadmap to Scale (47:46) Show Close About your Hosts Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights: Ricardo Belmar [https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar] is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 [https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/profiles/view/3427] has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation [https://business.gmu.edu/retail/]and the Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community]. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden [https://bit.ly/twCasey], is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock [https://www.luxlock.com/]. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community] advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!  Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Agentic AI Has Arrived: What Retail & CPG Marketers Must Do Next

S2E6 Scaling Agentic AI, GenAI, & redefining roles while building governance for the autonomous marketing era Agentic AI isn’t coming — agentic AI is already here, and it’s reshaping how retail and CPG marketing teams operate. In this final episode of our three‑part series with Incisiv and Adobe, we break down how agentic workflows, autonomous decisioning, and Gen AI driven content systems are transforming marketing roles, governance models, and customer experience strategies. Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Dave Weinand [https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/], Chief Customer Officer at Incisiv [https://www.incisiv.com/], and with Bruce Richards [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/], Global Industry Strategy & Marketing Lead at Adobe [https://business.adobe.com/]. Together, they unpack the research behind the State of Customer Experience in Retail & Consumer Goods. They explain what marketers must do now to prepare for the autonomous era. Key Topics Covered * Why most brands are stuck in GenAI pilot mode — and how to finally scale * The difference between content‑generation AI and decision‑driving AI * How agentic workflows automate micro‑decisions across channels * Where agentic AI delivers low‑risk, high‑value wins today * Why AI governance is now a marketing imperative * The rise of new roles: journey owners, AI operators, content system leads * How AI‑powered discovery is rewriting SEO and customer acquisition * What retailers and CPG brands must do to prepare for autonomous marketing systems   Why This Episode Matters Retail and CPG leaders are facing a seismic shift: agentic AI is moving from assistive tools to autonomous systems that optimize budgets, personalize journeys, and manage content at massive scale. This episode gives marketers the blueprint to evolve their teams, redesign workflows, and build governance frameworks that unlock safe, scalable innovation. Resource Links State of Personalized Experience in Consumer Goods in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html] State of Customer Experience in Retail in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html] Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation! Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ [https://retailrazor.com/] Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com [https://retailrazor.substack.com] Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube [https://go.retailrazor.com/utube] About Our Guests Bruce Richards [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/]. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/] Global Industry Strategy & Marketing Lead – Retail & Consumer Goods, Adobe [https://business.adobe.com/]. https://business.adobe.com/ [https://business.adobe.com/] Bruce Richards joined Adobe in 2018 and today leads Global Industry Strategy for Retail & Consumer Goods with a bold, future-forward vision. With more than 25 years of executive experience across Retail and Consumer Goods, Bruce is a driving force behind Adobe’s industry direction—helping brands innovate, adapt, and win in an environment where consumer expectations evolve by the minute. Dave Weinand [https://d.docs.live.net/b5197ff7a417837b/Retail%20Razor%20Media/Podcasts/DB%20Season%202/S2E4%20Incisiv-Adobe%20Part%201/Dave%20Weinand], https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/] Chief Customer Officer, Incisiv [https://d.docs.live.net/b5197ff7a417837b/Retail%20Razor%20Media/Podcasts/DB%20Season%202/S2E4%20Incisiv-Adobe%20Part%201/Incisiv], https://www.incisiv.com [https://www.incisiv.com] David Weinand is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Incisiv, Inc. – a research and insights firm focused on helping retailers and brands navigate digital transformation across online, store, and supply chain functions. Weinand leads customer success for the firm and manages research and benchmarking projects with its largest clients. In addition, he manages relationships with the retail community. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:32) Show Intro (02:48) Welcome Back Dave Weinand and Bruce Richards! (03:49) Why GenAI Stays in Pilot (05:49) Content vs Decisioning AI (07:07) Quality Control and Trust (08:48) Assistive to Autonomous Agents (12:11) Low Risk Agentic Wins (14:12) AI Governance Urgency (16:50) AI Search and Discovery Shift (19:54) New Marketing Roles Emerging (22:58) Key Takeaways and Thanks (24:41) Show Close About your Hosts Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights: Ricardo Belmar [https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar] is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 [https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/profiles/view/3427] has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation [https://business.gmu.edu/retail/]and the Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community]. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden [https://bit.ly/twCasey], is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock [https://www.luxlock.com/]. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community] advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!  Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Retail Data Readiness: Why Retail & CPG Can’t Scale AI

S2E5 The Truth About Customer Data Silos and What It Takes to Fix Them In this episode of Data Blades, Ricardo Belmar and Casey Golden sit down with Bruce Richards [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/], Global Industry Strategy & Marketing Lead at Adobe [https://business.adobe.com/], to unpack the biggest barrier holding back modern marketing: retail data readiness. Despite massive investments in AI and personalization, most brands still struggle to act on their data in real time. The Adobe & Incisiv [https://www.incisiv.com/] State of Customer Experience in Retail and Consumer Goods research reveals a hard truth: customer data silos and fragmented identity systems are preventing retailers and CPG brands from scaling AI in retail marketing. Bruce breaks down why dashboards create a “maturity illusion,” why identity fragmentation derails customer experience, and what an AI‑ready data foundation actually looks like. From unified profiles to real‑time behavioral signals to built‑in governance, this episode gives leaders a practical roadmap for fixing the data layer before scaling AI. You’ll also hear how retailers and CPGs face opposite data challenges, why culture change matters more than tech, and how experimentation and agentic workflows will reshape the future of marketing. What You’ll Learn * Why retail data readiness is the #1 blocker to AI‑driven customer experience * How customer data silos create inconsistent journeys and wasted spend * Why most brands overestimate their maturity, and how to close the activation gap * What an AI‑ready data foundation requires (unified profiles, real‑time signals, governance, activation) * How retailers and CPGs face opposite data problems, and how each can solve them * Why shifting from intuition‑first to evidence‑first decision making is essential * How experimentation culture accelerates learning and improves AI in retail marketing * The role of GenAI and agentic workflows in scaling personalization   Resource Links State of Personalized Experience in Consumer Goods in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html] State of Customer Experience in Retail in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html] Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation! Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ [https://retailrazor.com/] Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com [https://retailrazor.substack.com] Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube [https://go.retailrazor.com/utube] About Our Guest Bruce Richards [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/]. https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/brucefrichards/] Global Industry Strategy & Marketing Lead – Retail & Consumer Goods, Adobe [https://business.adobe.com/]. Bruce Richards joined Adobe in 2018 and today leads Global Industry Strategy for Retail & Consumer Goods with a bold, future-forward vision. With more than 25 years of executive experience across Retail and Consumer Goods, Bruce is a driving force behind Adobe’s industry direction—helping brands innovate, adapt, and win in an environment where consumer expectations evolve by the minute. A specialist in customer experience, digital transformation, and modern marketing, Bruce partners closely with Adobe’s clients to design standout strategies and build the solution ecosystems that bring them to life. His career spans leadership roles in marketing, consulting, and customer advisory, where he led client services teams supporting some of the world’s most iconic brands, including Macy’s, Estée Lauder, Bloomingdale’s, Beiersdorf, CVS/pharmacy, and Hanesbrands. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:26) Show Intro (02:34) Introduction - Welcome Bruce Richards (03:26) Data Readiness: The Biggest Barrier (04:20) The Activation Gap & Maturity Illusion (05:40) Identity Fragmentation & Customer Experience (08:15) What an AI-Ready Data Foundation Looks Like (10:39) Retail vs. CPG: Different Data Challenges (12:47) Culture, Org Change & Shared Data Ownership (16:09) From Intuition to Evidence-First Decision Making (17:25) The Power of Experimentation Culture (18:47) AI at Scale: Gen AI & Agentic Workflows (20:35) Wrap-Up (21:10) Show Close About your Hosts Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights: Ricardo Belmar [https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar] is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 [https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/profiles/view/3427] has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation [https://business.gmu.edu/retail/]and the Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community]. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden [https://bit.ly/twCasey], is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock [https://www.luxlock.com/]. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community] advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!  Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.

Data, AI & the Customer Experience Gap - Rewriting the Marketing Playbook

S2E4 The Truth About Retail Customer Experience - What Adobe + Incisiv Discovered In this episode of The Retail Razor: Data Blades, Ricardo and Casey kick off a three‑part series with Dave Weinand [https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/], Chief Customer Officer at Incisiv [https://www.incisiv.com/], to unpack the latest Adobe [https://business.adobe.com/] + Incisiv State of Customer Experience in Retail and Consumer Goods research. Consumer expectations are rising faster than most retail marketing teams can respond, and the gap between what shoppers want and what brands deliver is widening.   Dave breaks down: * why customer experience continues to lag despite massive investment,  * why traditional marketing playbooks are failing, and  * how CMOs are shifting toward revenue‑driven metrics like CLV and loyalty.  The conversation explores the operational pressures shaping retail marketing, including frictionless checkout, page speed, unified data, and the rise of technical marketers. Plus, a preview of episodes to come diving into how Generative AI and agentic commerce will change the game for marketers.   This episode is a must‑listen for retail leaders navigating the future of customer experience, AI‑driven marketing, and the organizational changes required to keep up with today’s customer experience.   What We Cover * Why only 12% of retailers personalize more than 75% of the journey * How consumer expectations are outpacing retail marketing execution * Why friction kills: checkout steps, page speed, and new KPI dashboards * The shift from vanity metrics to revenue‑driven KPIs * How marketing now owns more of the customer experience * The rise of technical marketers and data‑driven roles * Why unified data is the foundation for AI readiness * Best Buy & Sephora as examples of customer‑journey‑based org models   Resource Links State of Personalized Experience in Consumer Goods in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-consumer-goods.html] State of Customer Experience in Retail in an AI-Driven World - Report https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html [https://business.adobe.com/resources/sdk/state-of-cx-retail.html] Subscribe & Follow Don't forget to like and subscribe to The Retail Razor: Data Blades for more episodes on customer experience, retail marketing, AI in retail, and data‑driven transformation! Subscribe to the Retail Razor Podcast Network: https://retailrazor.com/ [https://retailrazor.com/] Subscribe to our Newsletter: https://retailrazor.substack.com [https://retailrazor.substack.com] Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://go.retailrazor.com/utube [https://go.retailrazor.com/utube] About Our Guest Dave Weinand, https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/ [https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-weinand-a62538/] Chief Customer Officer, Incisiv, https://www.incisiv.com [https://www.incisiv.com] David Weinand is the Co-Founder and Chief Customer Officer of Incisiv, Inc. – a research and insights firm focused on helping retailers and brands navigate digital transformation across online, store, and supply chain functions. Weinand leads customer success for the firm and manages research and benchmarking projects with its largest clients. In addition, he manages relationships with the retail community. Prior to that, Weinand was SVP of the technology division of EnsembleIQ and led strategic direction and sales programming of their four media properties, including Hospitality Technology, RIS News, Apparel, and Consumer Goods Technology. In addition, Weinand launched and built the EIQ technology group’s research division - EKN Research. Chapters (00:00) Teaser (00:27) Show Intro (02:52) Welcome Dave Weinand! (04:26) Why Personalization Still Lags Behind Rising Customer Expectations (07:48) Friction Kills: Checkout Steps, Page Speed & the New KPI Dashboard (09:11) From Vanity Metrics to Revenue: CLV, Loyalty & Board-Level Accountability (11:08) Marketing Owns More of the Journey: Org Structure, New Skills & Technical Marketers (15:11) Is Consumer Behavior Outpacing Execution? Agile Testing, Autonomy & Speed (17:13) Why Customer-Journey Org Models Are Hard (and How Best Buy & Sephora Did It) (20:01) Data Readiness Before AI Readiness: Unifying Silos as the Catalyst (23:02) Wrap-Up, Where to Find the Study & Subscribe/Follow (23:42) Show Close About your Hosts Helping you cut through the clutter in retail data insights: Ricardo Belmar [https://bit.ly/LIRBelmar] is an NRF Top Retail Voice for 2025 and a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2021 – 2026. Thinkers 360 [https://www.thinkers360.com/tl/profiles/view/3427] has named him a Top 10 Thought Leader in Retail, a Top 25 Thought Leader in AGI and Careers, a Top 50 Thought Leader in Agentic AIand Management, and a Top 100 Thought Leader in Digital Transformation and Transformation. Thinkers 360 also named him a Top Digital Voice for 2024 and 2025. He is an advisory council member at George Mason University’s Center for Retail Transformation [https://business.gmu.edu/retail/]and the Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community]. He was most recently the partner marketing leader for retail & consumer goods in the Americas at Microsoft. Casey Golden [https://bit.ly/twCasey], is the North America Leader for Retail & Consumer Goods at CI&T, and CEO of Luxlock [https://www.luxlock.com/]. She is a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert [https://rethink.industries/top-retail-experts-2026/] from 2023 - 2026, and Retail Cloud Alliance [https://www.retailcloudalliance.com/our-community] advisory council member. After a career on the fashion and supply chain technology side of the business, Casey is obsessed with the customer relationship between the brand and the consumer and is slaying franken-stacks and building retail tech!  Music Includes music provided by imunobeats.com, featuring Tech Lore from the album Beat Hype, written by Heston Mimms, published by Imuno.