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Will AI Doom Physical Retail Or Save It? Yes! getty For all the chatter in the past year or so about the role of AI in the consumer economy, its potential impact on the brick-and-mortar shopping experience is only just taking shape. Opinions, of course, are divided. Major chain retailers have been investing heavily and are just beginning to roll out early iterations of in-store AI “shopping guides,” digital tools and features focused principally on making the physical experience as frictionless as e-commerce while retaining—and possibly enhancing—the personal touch. Some suggest that AI will be the “starting point” of all shopping experiences… Of course, experts have been predicting a twilight future for in-store shopping for years and it still hasn’t happened. But, will AI be the “tipping point”? While the pandemic did provide e-commerce with a burst of rocket fuel, most brick-and-mortar retailers have since figured out how to compete (or partner) with Amazon online. Once the Covid crisis peaked, humans went back to doing what humans do—driving to the store where they can touch the fabrics, read the labels, and squeeze the fruit. People like to browse and discover things they didn’t know they needed or wanted. Meanwhile, far from trending toward retail domination, US e-commerce growth is flattening. According to recent Commerce Department data, the rate of increase in online retail sales was the slowest in almost three years. The e-commerce share of all US retail sales was 16.4% in the third quarter, an increase over three years of less than 2%. AI may naturally lend itself to e-commerce, but AI also has enormous potential, using chatbots and personalization, to make the in-store experience better than it has ever been. By doing so, AI can actually be a loyalty builder. The possibilities are only limited by the imagination.…

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Filed under: News - @ January 28, 2026 6:28 pm