Three Days at NRF 2026 and Retail Quietly Changed Forever

January in New York usually delivers cold winds and early sunsets.

At NRF 2026: Retail’s Big Show, it delivered something more exciting. A sense that the future of retail is already taking shape right in front of us.

When we stepped into the Javits Center last week, the first thing that hit us wasn’t the gadgets or the buzzwords. It was the energy of practitioners and operators, people trying to figure out how to make all the shiny ideas actually work for their customers, employees, and bottom lines.

For Azilen, with over a decade spent building and scaling retail technology, NRF 2026 felt less like a spectacle and more like a turning point.

Here’s what we experienced, through the lens of real discussions, real systems, and real questions that will define the next chapter.

Morning Keynotes That Set the Tone

On the main stage, Sundar Pichai walked out with a message that surprised no one but landed with seriousness. He framed AI not as a future promise but a shift on par with mobile and cloud. He introduced a new standard – Universal Commerce Protocol – meant to let shoppers move from discovery to purchase seamlessly across platforms and agents. This move will make commerce itself more connected and less fragmented.

Source: NRF

Chris Beckner and NRF analysts echoed this direction in trend sessions, placing AI and agentic systems at the center of 2026’s retail trajectory, not as experimental tech, but as practical tools that retailers will have to integrate over time to compete.

What Made People Pause, Ask, and Debate

At booths from established vendors to emerging startups, we saw practical demonstrations that pointed toward where retailers are investing their energy:

→ At Fujitsu’s exhibit, a checkout assistant avatar helped shoppers through self-checkout. The system pulled data from POS, loyalty, and inventory systems in real time to guide customers and alert attendants to issues such as scanning or payment exceptions.

→ Several vendors displayed smart self-checkout and autonomous retail kiosks that didn’t just scan items but adapted offers and resolved exceptions based on detection logic tied to stock and customer behavior.

→ Robotics and automation weren’t in a back-room corner. Machines demonstrating dynamic shelving, autonomous inventory pick-and-place, and compact retail robots capable of scanning and replenishing aisles drew steady crowds because they directly targeted friction points retailers feel today.

Source: Luxer One

→ Across the show, holographic interfaces and digital avatars, powered by Hypervsn and Cisco, reacted to voice and visual input, not as gimmicks but as extensions of engagement models that major retailers were watching closely.

Source: Eventmarketer

6 Key Takeaways from NRF 2026 That Actually Matter for Retail Leaders

Beyond sessions and keynotes, themes spread organically through conversations, demonstrations, and the questions people asked:

Where Retail Leaders Looked for Clarity

If there was one thing every executive spoke about, it wasn’t excitement. It was uncertainty about deployment:

→ How do we prioritize where agentic capabilities go first?

→ How do we integrate them with existing systems without disruption?

→ How do we measure impact without inflated expectations?

These questions came up in sessions, over coffee, and in rapid exchanges on the expo floor.

They’re the same questions we get from teams doing real retail work – teams who want value delivered rather than technology for its own sake.

What It Means in Practice

After nearly twenty years working inside retail technology, from early POS modernization projects to today’s intelligent systems, one thing has become clear: the gap between idea and execution is where most transformations stall.

Here’s what “means something in practice” looks like from where we stand:

1. Start with a real business rhythm

2. Tie agent capability to a defined operational outcome

3. Embed agents into existing data and process flows

4. Give humans the right control, not just authority

5. Collect measurements that matter to the business