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Every year-end brings the same list of technologies that will supposedly change retail. Projections age fast. So before 2027 begins, it is worth checking what was projected and what has actually materialized. Here are the retail technology trends for 2027 and what they demand of the store.
Five retail technology trends for 2027
1. Agentic AI enters its proving stage
In July 2024, Gartner projected that at least 30% of generative AI projects would be abandoned after the proof-of-concept stage before the end of 2025. Then, in March 2025, S&P Global Market Intelligence found that 42% of companies had abandoned most of their AI initiatives. That share was almost 2.5 times higher than a year earlier. The two numbers measure different things, but they point in the same direction: not every AI project is making it to the finish line.
Now the bet is on agentic AI. In January 2026, Deloitte reported that nearly 68% of executives expected to deploy it within 12 to 24 months. Yet in June 2026, IHL Group, citing Gartner, reported that only 17% of organizations had deployed it. Between what was projected and what has been implemented lies a gap that 2027 will either close or confirm.
2. Connected data before more models
In 2024, Gartner already identified poor data quality as one of the causes of abandonment. In 2026, Deloitte reported that 44% of executives said their legacy systems were slowing innovation. In October 2026, Gartner projected that, by 2027, prioritizing semantics in AI-ready data could raise the accuracy of agentic AI by up to 80%. It could also cut costs by up to 60%.
The store is where much of the operation’s most valuable information lives. What happened on the shelf? What is the stockroom like? How is restocking going? Which failures come up most often? What problems does the customer run into? That information becomes valuable when it is captured in a structured way and supported by solid evidence. It then feeds the models reliable data. In turn, the models deliver sound analysis and recommendations that align with the realities of each store.
3. From information to task
There will be more and more information: a stockout, a wrongly applied price, an incomplete display. In December 2025, McKinsey surveyed 114 merchandising leaders. Of them, 71% said AI had a limited or no effect. Fewer than 10% used it in more than half of their decisions. Even so, looking ahead, IHL Group reported in its 2026 study that 61% of North American retailers planned to deploy shelf intelligence within 24 months.
In the field, any given day in a store includes cleaning, orders, restocking, price changes, commercial actions, and planogram corrections. All on the same day. Every new block of information competes for that same time. That is why information changes the outcome when it arrives as a specific task, with a priority, an owner, and a deadline. Then the task comes back with evidence that it was resolved.
4. AI assistants for people short on time
In January 2026, McKinsey reported that nearly three-quarters of the frontline workers surveyed in the United States perceived skill gaps. Companies also spent about US$9,100 per employee per year on software, compared with US$1,200 on training.
People who work in the store have little time and need quick, clear answers. An AI assistant fills that role when it receives a natural-language question and answers instantly. How reliable it is depends on its source of knowledge: accurate, always current documentation organized by role, area, and store. That is why it makes sense to connect a document manager with an employee AI assistant that answers from that documentation.
5. AI-driven commerce raises the bar for the physical store
Adobe measured that, in late 2025, traffic to US retail sites coming from generative AI grew 693% year over year. In January 2026, Deloitte reported that AI chats already accounted for 15% to 20% of referrals for some retailers. In addition, half of the executives expected that, by 2027, the purchase journey would shrink to a single interaction with AI.
In March 2026, McKinsey with Worldpanel by Numerator showed that 34% of consumers in Latin America bought consumer packaged goods online. In 2023, it was only 25%. What is more, 53% of those sales went through retailers with physical stores. In parallel, IHL Group reported in 2026 that only 38% of North American retailers had optimized in-store pickup.
A customer who enjoys a personalized, frictionless online experience expects the same in-store. If the purchase journey shrinks to a conversation with AI, the customer arrives with the decision already made. What they find on the sales floor will be compared with what they saw on the screen. The product in its place, the current price, and the complete display all count. Any difference shows.
What retail technology trends for 2027 demand of the store
All five retail technology trends for 2027 end up in the same place: whatever technology decides, someone has to carry out on the sales floor. How can that execution happen completely, on time, and with evidence in every store?
Any given day in a store will have the same number of hours in 2027 and more information to act on. Information becomes a task. The task reaches the team with the right documentation. The result comes back with evidence. Frogmi brings together task management, audits, a document manager, and an AI assistant on a single platform. See how Frogmi brings AI to execution across all your stores.
