The customer journey is increasingly starting before a shopper enters a retailer’s store, website or app. Consumers are using AI to research products, compare options, evaluate value and arrive with clearer intent and higher expectations. As AI evolves from advisor to shopping agent, retailers face a fundamental question: how do you influence, engage and build loyalty with customers whose decisions may increasingly be shaped outside your own channels? The gap is that retailers still design much of the customer journey as though they own its starting point.

This session explores what the rise of the AI-informed shopper means for discovery, personalization, product information, store associates, trust and loyalty, and how retailers can rethink engagement for a world where both humans and AI influence purchasing decisions.

What the attendees will learn:

•Understand the intent customers bring with them - use behavioral signals and AI to move beyond traditional segmentation toward what an individual customer is trying to accomplish.

•Turn pre-shopping intelligence into better engagement - connect intent to discovery, recommendations, service and experiences across digital and physical interactions.

•Redefine the retailer's role in an AI-mediated journey - understand how brands can remain relevant and trusted when AI increasingly influences what customers discover and choose.