In partnership with Retail Economics, Voyado surveyed 300 retailers across 10 European markets. 95% were experimenting with AI, but only 5% were seeing clear, scalable returns. Nine months on, has that gap closed? Annabel Lemmey of Voyado puts the question to Richard Lim, Founder and CEO of Retail Economics. Richard explains why he thinks little has changed, how rising costs and shrinking margins are pushing retailers towards AI for efficiency, and why the retailers that win will be the most resilient, not the ones with the best AI.

Chapters:

00:00 The AI ROI gap: 95% experimenting, 5% seeing returns

00:31 Nine months on, has the gap closed?

02:33 Efficiency, growth, or both?

04:36 Which metric will AI move first?

06:31 New AI roles and change management

08:14 What retail should be paying attention to

09:40 Quickfire round

13:50 Wrapping up and the report

Read Voyado's report, The state of AI in retail 2026:

Report - https://voyado.com/the-state-of-AI-in-retail/

You can follow Richard Lim here:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-lim-42527726/

Learn more about Retail Economics:

Website - https://www.retaileconomics.co.uk/

Learn more about Voyado:

Website - https://voyado.com/