As one would expect, artificial intelligence was a big theme at last week’s National Retail Federation’s annual event in New York City, as it was last year, but there was one subtle difference. The 2025 edition was focused more on AI education, whereas I felt this year’s NRF focused more on use cases. In fact, one of the speakers I saw said something to the effect that NRF is no longer a technology show but rather a business outcomes event.
As CES wound down, industry watchers are now turning their attention to the National Retail Federation show across the country in New York. Retail, once is slow moving industry, is now ripe with change and the in-store environments have become operationally more complex.
Cisco Systems Inc. this week held its first AI Summit, a thought leadership event on the pivotal topics shaping the future of artificial intelligence — this one focused on the security of AI systems. The summit was small and intimate, with about 150 attendees, including executives from about 40 Fortune 100 companies. I understand why the interest from top companies was so high, as the speaker list was impressive
It’s NRF week in New York, which allows technology vendors to showcase innovation for the retail industry, and at the National Retail Federation show, HPE Aruba Networking rolled out several new products to help retailers tackle industry-specific challenges. They included providing backup connectivity for mission-critical apps, supporting pop-up stores and simplifying information technology infrastructure deployment in retail environments.
Artificial intelligence is on the verge of a significant growth spurt in retail, according to a new report from Nvidia Corp. In conjunction with its NRF 2024 activities, Nvidia released its first “State of AI in Retail and CPG” report Tuesday. The study shows a bullish outlook for AI, with more than 60% of retailers saying they’ll increase AI infrastructure investments over the coming 18 months.