It’s no surprise that just about every educational session at NRF 2025 included AI as part of the discussion. However, the consensus at the event was that AI is no longer just a futuristic innovation people are talking about — it’s a technology retailers must experiment with and invest in to compete in the future. While both generative and predictive AI are delivering tangible benefits across every aspect of business operations, one clear use case is the value it can deliver on the frontline. Here, we spotlight a few examples of how AI improves the employee experience and, in turn, customer service.
AI: Streamlining workforce management
Employee scheduling is a time-consuming, difficult task for retail managers — this is a key area where AI tools can make a big impact.
In the session, “Driving Workforce Engagement and Efficiency,” Mattress Firm and Five Below spoke about the benefits of implementing AI tools to handle employee scheduling. Both retailers have found that it not only frees up time for store managers, it infuses logic and fairness into the process. As Robyn Martin, Senior Director of Store Operations at Mattress Firm explained, “We definitely want to use science and data to drive these decisions versus [a manager thinking], ‘I like Laurie so I’m going to give her whatever schedule she wants.’ We need to have the right people in store at the right times and data can drive that.”
You want to make sure you are eliminating scheduling issues and reducing legal risk while building trust with managers and the frontline.
SENIOR DIRECTOR, HR TECHNOLOGY, FIVE BELOW
Sanish Mondakar, Founder and CEO of Legion Technologies, which provides the platform both Mattress Firm and Five Below use, said that regardless of how good these tools are or how much they’ll improve in the next few years, the human element will always be important. The goal of using these tools is to create efficiencies for managers and, “give them back valuable time to spend with customers, mentoring and coaching their teams, and thinking about store business.”
AI: Enhancing employee training
In the session, “5 Ways AI Will Make Retail More Personal, Not Less,” Suzanne Long, Chief Sustainability and Transformation Officer at Albertsons Companies, a US-based grocery chain, shared that the company has found AI to be incredibly helpful in supporting new employee training. She pointed out that the industry has a notoriously high employee turnover, and with 2,300 stores and about 275,000 frontline positions, the company is constantly onboarding new people.
Now, instead of pulling their best associates off the floor to train new employees, Albertson’s is using AI-supported tools to help them learn what they need to know to be effective in their jobs.
Mirko Saul, Senior Vice President of Innovation at Schwarz Digital GmbH & Co. KG., which owns Lidl, a global grocery store chain, shared the stage with Suzanne. He said Lidl is also using AI to support employee training, tapping into its capabilities to deliver real-time information to new employees. He pointed out that new employees spend hours in training, learning everything about the store, products and policies — then one week later they have difficulty remembering specific information. “This is why the real-time aspect is important — along with the ability for AI to summarize information so they can understand it.”
With stores in 30 countries, Lidl is drawing on AI’s translation capabilities, not only to deliver content to in-store employees in every language but also to provide information to customers in their call centers. Mirko said the company has deployed fully automated AI customer support to answer basic questions in every language. Customers with more complex questions can receive human support. This combination is proving to be a cost-effective way for Lidl to offer personalized support to customers in their native language.
AI: Empowering employees and improving customer service
Retailers across all industries are launching internal apps with chatbot capabilities to support frontline employees both in-store and online. Pre-loaded with information from company handbooks along with answers to common employee questions and problems, they give employees access to information quickly and in a conversational tone. Since the content is digital, it can easily be updated, ensuring the responses are always current and accurate.
Shirley Geo, Chief Digital and Information Officer at PacSun, shared that their employees, most of whom are Gen Z, love “Chatty,” the company’s internal app because it’s a fast resource they can turn to for immediate help. Employees can ask questions like, “The cash register is running slow. What do I do?” or “My manager just yelled at me. Who should I tell?” and Chatty provides answers and resources based on company policies and procedures.
Many of these AI-supported apps not only support internal queries, they also help employees deliver better customer service. An example of this is Target’s “Store Companion” app, which the retailer rolled out to all of its stores in August 2024. In the session, “Exploring the Future of Retail with Generative AI,” Meredith Jordan, VP of Engineering, Store Product Engineering at Target, explained that its AI app is trained to provide product details, store information, inventory updates and operational procedures. Employees can check prices for customers, help them find a product’s location in-store or sign them up for a Target Circle Card.
We spend a lot of time with our frontline teams … listening and learning. Our teams are kind of unlocking the door of what we need to do next.
CHAIR AND CEO, TARGET
Fast fact:
89% of retailers are actively using AI in their operations or are piloting AI projects, up from 82% in 2023.
Suzanne brought up that as she walked the show floor, she kept hearing conversations about creating efficiencies and getting more out of her employees. However, she doesn’t think this is what retailers should be focusing on.
Isn't it about reinvesting that in the best service possible, in the best employee experience possible so that people want to work with you — so that they become the ambassadors of your brand and bring the life of your store to the customers who walk in every single day?
CHIEF SUSTAINABILITY AND TRANSFORMATION OFFICER, ALBERTSONS COMPANIES
To explore top use cases of how AI is supporting customer experience, increasing operational efficiencies and driving revenue and learn about ethical considerations, download our eBook, Ethical AI in Retail, created in collaboration with Google Cloud.
Anita J. Temple is the Corporate Journalist at commercetools. She was a fashion editor at Women’s Wear Daily (WWD) and W Magazine before launching a career as a freelance writer and creative producer. She has written content and worked on a wide range of marketing projects for companies including Dreamworks, Walmart, Coca-Cola, Verizon, and Adidas.