I was at the Retail Technology Show at ExCeL London today. A lot of energy, a lot of kit, and — more than previous years — a lot of conversations about AI. Here's what struck me, as someone who advises retail businesses on strategy and commercial growth.
| Matthew Gaunt | | | 22 April 2025 | | | Retail Strategy |
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Observation AI is finally getting practical |
For the last two years, most AI conversations in retail have been theoretical. "What could we do?" and "What might this mean?" The mood at RTS today felt different. People are arriving with actual answers to actual problems.
That's progress. Not every solution was fully baked, but the direction is right. The best AI applications I saw were solving specific, operational problems — not reimagining retail from scratch.
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The so-what for leadership teams Stop waiting for a perfect AI strategy. Start with one real problem. What's expensive, slow, or inconsistent in your operation right now? That's where to start — not a strategy document, a use case. |
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Observation Interactive screens: impressive tech, wrong question |
There was a lot of kit on show around in-store interactive visual displays. Some of it was genuinely impressive from a technical standpoint.
But I kept asking myself: is this what customers actually want?
In my experience, when a customer is standing in a store and needs information, they do one of two things. They find a colleague. Or they get their phone out and Google it.
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"Asking a customer to stop, locate a screen, and interact with it adds friction — it doesn't remove it." |
The technology is solving a problem that may not exist in the way we think it does. The more important question for any retailer considering this kind of investment is: what is the job the customer is actually trying to do at this moment, and what is the fastest, most natural way to help them do it?
Sometimes that's a screen. More often, it isn't.
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Observation Retail media: straightforward principles, complicated execution |
I sat in on a presentation about retail media from a major UK retailer. It was one of the more useful sessions of the day.
Here's what I think is underappreciated: the principles of retail media are not complicated. You have first-party customer data. Brands want access to that audience. You build a commercial model around it. That's it.
What came through clearly is that even large, sophisticated retailers are still building this capability — learning in real time what audiences to create, how to price, how to measure, and how to manage the relationship between their retail and media teams.
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The so-what for mid-size retailers Retail media is not just a FTSE thing. If you have meaningful customer transaction data and a relevant audience, you have an asset. The gap between "we understand what retail media is" and "we have a well-run retail media business" is mostly an organisational and change management problem — not a technology one. |
What connected these three observations — AI, in-store tech, and retail media — is the same challenge I see in most of the businesses I work with.
The right question is never "what technology should we adopt?" The right question is: "what business outcome are we trying to achieve, and what role — if any — does technology play in getting there?"
Events like RTS are valuable because they force that conversation. But it needs to happen in your boardroom and your trading meetings — not just on an exhibition floor.
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Want to talk through what this means for your business?If you're a retail or consumer leader trying to work out where the real opportunities sit — on AI, retail media, or customer technology — I'm happy to have that conversation. No pitch. Just a straightforward discussion. Get in touch |
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MG
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Matthew Gaunt Founder, Matthew Gaunt Associates — Board Advisor & Non-Executive Director |