Introduction

Coresight Research is a research partner of Groceryshop 2025, which took place during September 28–October 1 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Groceryshop is an annual conference that brings together global retailers, brands and technology leaders to discuss trends, innovations and strategies shaping the future of grocery and CPG.

The sessions at Groceryshop 2025 are categorized into four major themes, which we presented in our guide to the event:

• Efficient and AI-Powered Grocery Operations
• Understanding, Captivating and Retaining Shoppers
• The Next Frontier for Retail Media (and New Revenue Streams)
• Building Unified and Future-Ready Organizations

In this report, we present key insights from the fourth and final day of Groceryshop 2025, which mainly covered the themes of Understanding, Captivating and Retaining Shoppers and Building Unified and Future-Ready Organizations. We also include highlights from the Groceryshop Key Takeaways session, which summarized the most important learnings from the four-day event.

Groceryshop 2025 Day Four: Coresight Research Insights

1. Understanding, Captivating and Retaining Shoppers

AI-Driven Discovery and the Shopper Journey

Product discovery in grocery retail is going through a major transformation. Where once shoppers relied primarily on in-store visibility and word-of-mouth, discovery today is increasingly hybrid, spanning physical aisles, social platforms and emerging AI-powered platforms. While the store remains the dominant channel, the shopper journey is now fluid and agentic. Social media and AI tools create new points of entry, while in-store experiences continue to convert curiosity into purchase. Retailers and brands must therefore balance traditional merchandising with AI-powered personalization, ensuring that discovery leads quickly and reliably to conversion.

Simon Rodeiro, Vice President Digital Commerce & Omni-Channel Marketing, PIM Brands, described the enduring importance of in-store shopping, noting that “70% of discovery is still happening in stores.” For categories like snacks, physical presence on an endcap or shelf remains a powerful trigger for parents and impulse buyers. Yet Rodeiro emphasized that consumer research increasingly starts elsewhere: shoppers may search AI tools for “healthy snacks” or browse TikTok for recipes, only to validate their choices in-store. PIM has responded by redefining “demand spaces” for Welch’s Fruit Snacks—shifting from being seen only as a lunchbox item to targeting busy professionals seeking on-the-go energy. This repositioning fed directly into AI-driven product content, such as “mess-free snacking” imagery, which resonated with both search queries and lifestyle needs.

Karin Chu, Vice President, Head of AI, Data Science & Analytics, Ahold Delhaize USA, shared how agentic AI is changing shopper entry points. Customers now arrive at digital storefronts via ChatGPT or other LLM-powered interfaces, often with highly contextual queries such as “birthday party for a two-year-old” or “snacks for a road trip” (and Coresight Research data show about 30% of US consumers could be using these tools for holiday 2025 shopping). These agentic journeys bypass traditional search engines and place new demands on retailers: ensuring product data is structured and discoverable, inventory is accurate and recommendations feel relevant. Chu highlighted that while AI can streamline search and substitution, human oversight remains essential. Merchandising teams and business stakeholders must guide algorithms so that results align with brand intent and customer expectations.

Alicia LeBeouf, Head of Industry, Retail & Grocery, Meta, reinforced the continuing role of social platforms as engines of discovery. She noted that shoppers often “don’t know what they need until social helps them see it,” contrasting search (which requires intent) with discovery (which thrives on inspiration). Meta’s embedded AI curates ads and content from user behavior, seamlessly guiding consumers from “I like this” moments to transactions. She also emphasized that Meta’s scale—3.4 billion daily users across Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp—provides an unmatched opportunity for brands to meet shoppers in their discovery moments.

Despite the growing role of AI and social, Rodeiro reminded the audience that word-of-mouth remains powerful—his anecdote of his wife only buying products recommended by her mother or sister highlighted the enduring role of trust. Discovery journeys may begin in a TikTok recipe, pass through an AI assistant and end with a family endorsement before the purchase occurs at the shelf.

Looking forward, speakers identified three disruptive forces shaping how consumers will engage with products: retail media reinvention, wearable technology and agentic commerce.

• Retail Media’s New Role: Rodeiro predicted a “complete reshaping” of retail media, moving away from narrow sponsored search strategies and toward upper-funnel brand-building. This opens the door for more inspirational campaigns that merge digital discovery with in-store visibility.
• Wearables as Discovery Tools: LeBeouf showcased Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses as a glimpse of how discovery could move beyond screens. Features like real-time translation and highlighting product attributes, such as “gluten-free items,” in-aisle point to a future where wearables augment physical shopping. In such scenarios, discovery becomes interactive and personal—blending the immediacy of the store with the intelligence of digital.
• Agentic Commerce: Chu pointed to recent moves by GPT—allowing direct shopping on Etsy through APIs—as a “wow moment” that signals a coming revolution. If AI agents decide what products a shopper sees, retailers and brands may lose traditional control over adjacencies and positioning. Instead, they will need to think strategically about how to “show up” in agent-driven ecosystems.

Left to right: Karin Chu, Vice President, Head of AI, Data Science & Analytics, Ahold Delhaize USA; Alicia LeBeouf, Head of Industry, Retail & Grocery, Meta; Simon Rodeiro, Vice President Digital Commerce & Omni-Channel Marketing, PIM Brands; and Sam Tomlinson, EVP, Warschawski

Source: Groceryshop

 

2. Building Unified and Future-Ready Organizations

Breaking Down Data Silos for Scalable AI

Most AI ambitions collapse not because of the algorithms, but because of fragmented data and culture. Companies are eager to experiment with generative and agentic AI, but without harmonized, trustworthy data foundations, those efforts rarely scale. Panelists emphasized that the challenge is not technical feasibility—most organizations can spin up pilots—but organizational fragmentation. Siloed data, duplicated systems and misaligned priorities keep AI from delivering value. To be future-ready, companies need to organize data around customer needs rather than departments, and build a culture where data is treated as a shared asset across the business.

Deepak Jose, VP & Head of Data & Decision Intelligence, Niagara Bottling, noted that more than 95% of AI initiatives at large enterprises fail to generate value, often because the data foundations are weak. He likened organizational silos to “five blind people explaining an elephant”—each part makes sense, but no one sees the whole. Jose stressed that success depends on harmonization across marketing, trade, e-commerce and retail media budgets, which currently sit in four or five separate silos. For CFOs and boards to invest at scale, leaders need unified KPIs and a single view of spend.

Courtney Trudeau, Managing Director, Technology, Publicis Sapient, illustrated the upside of getting this right with a pandemic-era example. One alcohol retailer was experiencing a surge in site traffic that failed to translate into sales. By pulling together siloed datasets, identifying micro-segments and deploying a personalization engine, the retailer unlocked 150% growth in conversions and nearly doubled revenue the next quarter. For Trudeau, this proved that unified data is not just an operational hygiene issue—it is directly tied to topline performance.

Shweta Prabhu, VP, Digital, MarTech, Enterprise Systems, Data & Analytics, Giant Eagle, described the pitfalls of fragmented approaches. Teams often copy datasets to move faster, but when enrichment happens in one silo, those updates do not flow into downstream systems. The result is “pockets of good data” coexisting with “pockets of bad data”, undermining trust. She advocated for data lakes and master data management (MDM) systems, which can increase trust in AI outputs and support decisions at scale.

Alan Wizemann, Chief Digital Officer, Southern Glazers Wine & Spirits, showed how shifting perspective can unlock progress even in highly fragmented environments. His company, which had grown through acquisitions, was saddled with 27 disparate systems. Rather than focus first on internal integration, his team reframed the supply chain data through the lens of customer needs. By exposing real-time truck inventory to customers, they not only created value externally but also justified investment internally. Wizemann noted that this “value lens” turned supply chain data—a traditionally siloed but accurate dataset—into a foundation for broader organizational change.

All panelists agreed that technology is rarely the hardest barrier. As Wizemann put it, “tech is the easiest part; culture is the hardest.” Legacy processes and siloed teams often resist sharing, clinging to “don’t play in my sandbox” mentalities. True transformation requires cultural alignment and clear value demonstration—helping teams see how shared platforms make their own jobs easier, while also supporting the bigger picture.

Speakers cautioned against “throw AI at it” approaches. Trudeau emphasized that experimentation with siloed AI is beneficial, but scaling requires enterprise-wide processes and cultural transformations. Deepak Jose compared AI literacy to electricity: “everybody will be using it.” He explained that AI education must be democratized across the organization, with experts working alongside business and IT to embed tools responsibly.

Deepak Jose, VP & Head of Data & Decision Intelligence, Niagara Bottling

Source: Groceryshop

 

3. Key Groceryshop Takeaways

Consumer Priorities: Health and Price

Rocquan Lucas, VP, Content, Groceryshop, emphasized that one of the event’s most consistent themes was health. Shoppers are demanding healthier products, influenced by government moves to restrict certain ingredients and by the rapid adoption of GLP-1 drugs. These shifts are not only altering consumption but also reshaping channel choices. According to Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Groceryshop, nearly half of shoppers who remain on GLP-1 regimens have switched their main grocery store, fundamentally disrupting loyalty. He also noted that the health trend is driving volume growth for CPG players such as Danone and Chobani, as food is increasingly framed as medicine.

At the same time, economic pressures and tariffs keep price at the forefront. Chris Walton, Co-CEO, Omni Talk, noted these are not new trends, but they are converging more visibly in 2025.

• Look out for the Coresight Research Playbook on how retailers and brands should adapt to GLP-1 adoption, coming soon.

Agents Everywhere

Agentic AI permeated almost every discussion. Miller predicted a shift from SEO to “AEO” (agentic engine optimization) as AI agents become the default interface for grocery planning and shopping. Retailers and brands must now consider how their products surface in agent-driven ecosystems that integrate multiple technologies.

Lucas described Walmart and Colgate keynote examples where AI not only transformed the shopper journey but also transformed internal workflows. Walmart’s own survey found that shoppers now trust AI recommendations almost as much as they trust influencers. Internally, Lucas noted, AI is being adopted so quickly that explainability is no longer a barrier—employees already understand it and expect it.

Creators as Amplifiers

Anne Mezzenga, Co-CEO, Omni Talk, pointed to Poppi, whose founder said 80% of product innovation is planned but 10% is opportunistic—built on fast-moving cultural trends. In an agentic environment, this opportunism matters more, because agents and influencers amplify what is trending in real time. Startups are already stepping into this space: Scrollmark, the “audience winner” at Shark Reef pitch competition, uses agentic tools to move consumers from awareness on social to transaction, demonstrating how agents can compress the path to purchase.

It All Comes Back to the Stores

Despite the excitement around AI and digital, Walton insisted the store remains the backbone of grocery retail. The most impactful applications of technology will be those that solve operational pain points, such as inventory accuracy, pricing and labor productivity. Lucas noted that robotics and computer vision are advancing, citing startup MUSE, which won the Judges’ Choice award in the Shark Reef competition for its shelf-scanning and modular robotics platform.

Miller emphasized that even e-commerce growth depends on efficient stores. Ocado, often associated with pure-play automation, stressed the same point during its keynote: brick-and-mortar efficiency is foundational. This theme echoed across multiple discussions—digital commerce cannot succeed if the store is inefficient, under-stocked or poorly integrated with fulfillment systems.

Retail Media in the “Age of Reckoning”

Panelists agreed that retail media is at an inflection point. Miller described this as the “Age of Reckoning,” where grocery must move beyond traditional trade spend and embrace full-funnel activation that links digital advertising with in-store engagement. In a category where 80–90% of transactions remain physical, this means retail media must be as effective on the shelf as it is online.

Walton highlighted Sam’s Club’s RXN (Retail Experience Network), which blends branding, sampling, in-store screens and digital experiences. Similarly, Albertsons and Loblaw are layering in-store audio and digital screens for a “surround-sound” effect. These examples show how retail media is evolving from banner ads into immersive in-store ecosystems.

But panelists also warned that execution ultimately falls on associates. Walton emphasized that every new campaign, screen or sampling program is one more task for store employees. If retail media is not designed with operational realities in mind, it risks undermining rather than enhancing the store experience.

Left to right: Ben Miller, VP, Original Content & Strategy, Groceryshop; Rocquan Lucas, VP, Content, Groceryshop; Chris Walton, Co-CEO, Omni Talk; and Anne Mezzenga, Co-CEO, Omni Talk

Source: Groceryshop

 

• We will further cover takeaways from Groceryshop 2025 in our wrap-up report, publishing soon on coresight.com.