AI Moves From Pilots to Scale in 2026 Retail and Marketing

Overview

• Enterprises are shifting from experiments to operational AI, prioritizing governance and systems integration as only 39% can link AI to profit, according to McKinsey.
• Intelligent agents are gaining traction in retail operations, with 62% of organizations testing them and 88% using AI recurrently in at least one business function.
• Consumer behavior is reshaping tactics as 95% say trust is decisive in brand choice (NielsenIQ) and 57% conducted deep product research before purchasing in 2024 (Euromonitor).
• Voice and chat interfaces are becoming commerce mainstays, with 17.9% making weekly voice purchases (30.4% Gen Z), Gartner projecting four in ten digital interactions by voice by 2026, and 153.5 million U.S. voice-assistant users supporting a shift to AEO.
• Rising acquisition costs in 2025 (about 20%) are pushing budgets toward retention, zero‑party data and WhatsApp-based chat commerce that converts six times more than e‑commerce, while AI is framed as an assistant and nanoinfluencers grow in relevance.