Written by Dan Andersson, GTM & Solution Director, & Rob Watson, Principal Advisor, at Digital Commerce, Columbus.
Article summary:
NRF 2026 marks a decisive shift in retail: AI is no longer operating quietly behind the scenes but stepping directly into the customer journey. With over 40,000 attendees expected, NRF 2026 moves the conversation from experimentation to execution, highlighting how AI-native interfaces, unified data foundations, and responsible governance are redefining competitive advantage. For Columbus, the show is about translating vision into operational reality and helping retailers understand what must change now to compete in an intelligence-driven retail landscape.
The AI platform shift: From infrastructure to interface
NRF 2026 will not be remembered as another year of experimentation. It will be remembered as the moment AI stopped sitting behind the scenes and stepped directly into the customer journey. Across the stages at Javits Center and the flagship stores of New York City, a clear signal is emerging: retail is entering the playfield of agentic commerce, where AI systems do not merely assist transactions but actively shape discovery, decision-making, loyalty, and operations.
NRF 2026 takes place from January 11th to 13th and is expected to draw over 40,000 attendees, 1,000 exhibitors and thousands of brands. For Columbus, NRF is about understanding how this shift moves from keynote rhetoric to operational reality. Over five days, our experts Dan Andersson (GTM & Solution Director, Digital Commerce) and Rob Watson (Principal Advisor, Digital Commerce), will immerse themselves in the sessions and store environments where AI, commerce, content, and customer experience are converging at scale.
The tone for NRF 2026 is set early with The AI Platform Shift and the Opportunity Ahead for Retail, featuring leaders from Walmart and Google. This session frames AI not as an add-on capability but as the new foundational layer of retail platforms. The implication is significant. Retail platforms are no longer defined by ERP, commerce engines, or POS systems alone. They are increasingly defined by AI-native interfaces, predictive intelligence, and orchestration layers that connect supply, demand, and experience in real time.
For Dan Andersson, GTM & Solution Director for Digital Commerce at Columbus, this represents a structural inflection point.
“AI is becoming the front door to retail,” he explains. “Search, recommendations, loyalty, service, and even checkout are increasingly mediated by intelligent agents. The question is no longer whether retailers adopt AI, but whether their architecture allows AI to act across the business.”
The question is no longer whether retailers adopt AI, but whether their architecture allows AI to act across the business
The playfield of agentic commerce
This overarching theme is reinforced throughout the days with multiple sessions focused explicitly on agentic commerce, including The Rise of Agentic Commerce: What AI Means for the Future of Shopping and Agentic Commerce in Action: How URBN Meets Shoppers Where They Are.
These sessions move beyond theory, exploring how brands and platforms are deploying AI agents that can guide shoppers, personalise journeys, and act autonomously within defined guardrails.
According to Dan Andersson, what stands out is not the technology itself, but the shift in control. Shopping journeys are no longer linear or channel-driven. They are conversational, contextual, and increasingly delegated to AI systems acting on behalf of consumers.
“This has profound implications for how retailers think about product data, content, inventory visibility, and trust”, he states. “If AI agents are making recommendations, the quality and structure of the underlying information become mission critical.”
Photo: AI-native experiences is one of the major topics at NRF 2026
From websites to AI-native experiences
Several sessions challenge one of retail’s most entrenched assumptions: that the website is the primary digital touchpoint. Sessions such as Beyond the Website: Reinventing Retail for AI-Native Shoppers and The AI-Powered Shopper: How Generative Agents Are Building Retail’s New Front Door point to a future where discovery happens across assistants, platforms, and embedded interfaces.
For Columbus, this reinforces the importance of unified commerce foundations. AI-native retail cannot function on fragmented data, disconnected content systems, or siloed operations.
“Agentic commerce only works when the fundamentals are right,” Rob Watson, Principal Advisor for Digital Commerce at Columbus, explains. “Unified product data, real-time inventory, composable architectures, and governance are what allow AI to scale responsibly.”
If AI agents are making recommendations, the quality and structure of the underlying information become mission critical
Loyalty, content, and the new retail economics
NRF 2026 also places heavy emphasis on how AI is reshaping loyalty, content creation, and commercial models. Sessions such as The New Loyalty Engine and AI-Powered Content at Scale: The Home Depot Marketing Reinvention highlight how AI is moving from efficiency gains to revenue impact.
Here, AI-driven content generation, personalisation, and lifecycle engagement are no longer experimental. They are core capabilities, enabling retailers to respond faster to demand, reduce cost-to-serve, and create relevance at scale.
Retail media, dynamic pricing, and data-driven monetisation models are woven throughout the agenda, signalling a shift in how retailers generate value beyond traditional margins.
Photo: Dior's flagship store in New York City.
Our expert’s chosen retail tours: Where theory meets reality
Away from the stages, New York City itself becomes a living laboratory. Dan’s and Rob’s retail tours are deliberately designed to test NRF’s narratives against real-world execution. From SoHo’s brand-theatre flagships like KITH, Gentle Monster, Dyson, and Banana Republic, to Union Square’s community and circularity-driven concepts such as Petco, The RealReal, and Pop-Up Grocer, the focus is on how brands translate intelligence into experience.
The inclusion of Printemps at One Wall Street adds a particularly important lens: how European luxury and department store thinking is being reinterpreted for an AI-influenced, American retail context. On Fifth Avenue, global flagships such as Nike House of Innovation, Tiffany & Co., Dior, and Bergdorf Goodman provide insight into how retail media, service design, and storytelling evolve when experience, data, and brand heritage intersect.
“These stores show us what happens when systems, service, and storytelling align,” Rob observes. “You can see where AI is invisible but essential, powering staff, service, and personalisation without breaking the magic.”
Key takeaways:
-
AI becomes the front door to retail
Search, discovery, loyalty, service, and checkout are increasingly mediated by intelligent agents, not traditional websites. -
Agentic commerce reshapes control of the customer journey
Shopping journeys become conversational, contextual, and delegated to AI, placing new demands on product data, content quality, and trust. -
Unified foundations enable AI at scale
Real-time inventory, structured product data, and connected commerce architectures are essential for AI-native retail experiences. -
AI drives revenue, not just efficiency
Loyalty engines, content at scale, retail media, and dynamic pricing models show how AI directly impacts growth and monetisation. -
Governance and trust rise to the top
Competitive advantage depends not on deploying the most AI, but on deploying it responsibly, transparently, and with clear intent.
In conclusion
NRF 2026 marks a transition from digital transformation to intelligent commerce. From agentic shopping journeys and AI-powered loyalty to content at scale and unified operations, the industry is redefining what competitive advantage looks like. As AI becomes woven into every process, every channel and every customer interaction, retailers are preparing for a world where intelligence, not just digitalisation, defines competitive advantage.
For Columbus, the goal is clear: to bring these insights home, translate them into actionable strategies, and help retailers move from experimentation to execution. NRF is not just about seeing what is new. It is about understanding what is next, and what must change now.
“Digital crosses every vertical,” Rob says. “And the most exciting part of NRF is seeing how lessons from large-format retail, health, beauty and luxury collide. It’s a jigsaw puzzle — and every year, a few new pieces click into place.”
Underlying all of this is also a more serious conversation about responsibility. As AI becomes embedded in every layer of retail, governance, transparency, and trust move to the top of the leadership agenda. The retailers leading this transition are not those deploying the most AI, but those deploying it with intent, clarity, and accountability.
Curious to know more? Follow our NRF 2026 coverage as we share insights from the stages, the store floors, and the streets of New York, where the future of retail is already taking shape.
