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Coresight Research kicked off the NRF weekend with an evening where innovation met inspiration. Held on Saturday of NRF 2026, AI Playbook: Content & Cocktails brought together investors, retail leaders, and technology executives for a lively night of insights, networking, and curated drinks.
Guests explored how artificial intelligence is reshaping the retail landscape—from personalized customer experiences to data-driven growth—while engaging in conversations about the forces shaping the industry’s future.
More than a cocktail event, the evening offered an early look at Coresight Research’s annual Technology Outlook Report, highlighting the latest perspectives on leveraging technology and AI across the retail value chain. The dialogue continued later that evening at a more strategic level during the Executive Leadership Dinner.
Together, attendees raised a glass to innovation, intelligence, and what’s next for retail at AI Playbook: Content & Cocktails—an elevated start to the NRF weekend.
Event Photos:
CEO & Founder
UDig
GM Digital Growth & Commercial Strategy
Endeavour Group
CEO & President
Stars Design Group
Vice President IT
Bridgestone Americas
VP, Tech: Digital, Retail, HCM
Wakefern Food Corp.
President
Chris Igwe International
Jared & Diamonds Direct
Vice President, AI Platforms
Tractor Supply Company
SVP Digital Platform | Managing Director OBI E-COM | Customer Management
OBI Group Holding
CEO
Alvanon
CIO
Evolution of Smooth (EOS)
Founder & CEO
The Wires
Board Member
Tillys
SVP & Regional Head - Consumer, Retail & Logistics
Infosys
Lead Technical Programme Manager
Tesco Labs
Senior Director of Retail Store Operations for North American Stores
Nike
Chief Digital and Information Officer
PacSun
SVP Technology
Dollar General Corp.
Coresight Research
Vice President - Innovators Services
Vice President - Advisory
Opening Remarks: Deborah Weinswig & The Coresight Team
Speakers:
Keynote Speaker: Shirley Gao | Chief Digital and Information Officer, PacSun
In conversation with: Deborah Weinswig | Founder & CEO, Coresight Research
Focus: The Back-of-House Shift Beyond simple automation, agentic retail creates a “self-adjusting” business.
This panel explores how agents are in the very early stages of advising human teams on complex decisions, eventually moving toward autonomously managing supply chains, inventory, and pricing. We will also discuss other high-impact operational areas—from dynamic staffing to fraud detection—and the specific risks along the way, such as “black box” logic and systemic errors. Lastly, we’ll discuss how to move away from rigid, legacy rules toward a fluid, orchestrated system that senses market shifts and acts in real-time to preserve margin and customer experience.
Moderator:
Kimberly Carney | Founder & CEO, The Wires
Panelists:
Tom Hutchins | SVP Technology, Dollar General
Charles McWeeney | VP, Tech: Digital, Retail, HCM, Wakefern Food Corp.
Introductions by: Deborah Weinswig | Founder & CEO, Coresight Research
Andy Frank | CEO & Founder, UDig
Glenn Allison | Vice President AI Platforms, Tractor Supply
The store is no longer a place; it is a set of capabilities. This session focuses on how retailers Reshape the storefront into a competitive advantage—one that blends digital growth, commercial strategy, and physical experience into a single, coherent performance system. We will look at what it takes to redesign the store as an engine for conversion, loyalty, fulfillment, and brand storytelling, while keeping operational reality intact: labor constraints, inventory accuracy, shrink, and the timeless customer expectation of “make it easy.”
Moderator: Bret Schnitker | CEO & President, Stars Design Group
Ben Thompson | GM Digital Growth & Commercial Strategy, Endeavour Group
Introductions by: Mariya Zorotovich | General Manager, Consumer Industries, Edge Computing Group, Intel Corporation
Mayank Ranjan | SVP & Regional Head – Consumer, Retail & Logistics, Infosys
Digital intelligence is maturing into physical intelligence. This keynote explores how retailers can Enhance both operations and experience by “embodying” AI—bringing decision-making into the physical environment through Physical AI, sensing, automation, and world models that simulate and optimize real-world conditions. The ambition is not novelty. The ambition is reliability: fewer misses, faster responses, better execution, and experiences that feel effortless because the complexity has been absorbed by the system, not the customer.
Keynote Speaker: Claudia Cividino | President, Jared & Diamonds Direct
Introductions by: Jeffrey Fish | Co-CEO & Co-Founder, Intelo.ai
