FEATURE | FMI MIDWINTER EXECUTIVE CONFERENCE
FMI ran a panel on agentic AI during its Midwinter Executive Conference in January.
AI monopolizes conversations at FMI Midwinter Executive Conference The tech is now front and center, and it continues to evolve
BY BILL WILSON
THE FMI MIDWINTER EXECUTIVE CON - FERENCE in Chula Vista, Calif., in late January was filled with some of the most important topics in the grocery industry— and AI dominated the conversation. On Jan. 23, a panel on AI agents closed out the educational portion of the conference and the message was clear: AI agents will dominate the grocery retail landscape by 2030 and if grocers are not ready for the tech they will lose sales. That session, along with sessions on food - service and hidden signals in the grocery industry, were covered by Supermarket News Senior Editor Bill Wilson and are sum - marized below. Agentic AI is coming fast and could make or break grocery sales By 2030, agentic AI will have the full atten - tion of shoppers, and grocery retailers must
ensure their data is ready to work with the technology. That was the primary message of the final keynote session at the FMI Midwinter Executive Conference in Chula Vista, Calif., which brought together grocery executives to discuss grocery technology and trends. Dan O’Connor, an executive fellow at Harvard Business School who works with AI and data companies, said some shoppers could have their own AI agents as early as 2028. Those agents would influence how people shop and which brands they choose. “One of the implications I think about a lot is that the world we’ve lived in for the last 20 years had lots of time between the data and the decision,” O’Connor said. “The competitiveness of agentic commerce is such that data and decisions are going to come together and happen instantaneously.” O’Connor said everyone who buys a new smartphone in the next few years will likely
have agentic AI built in. After answering a few questions, the AI agent will be able to make product recommendations and handle repetitive purchasing tasks. These task agents will operate based on rules set by consumers and retailers. “This is just like your health app on your iPhone,” O’Connor said. “We’re going to set it and forget it. These models run on trust and transparency.” That trust depends on the recency and credibility of a retailer’s content, as well as transparency about what products do well, what they do not do well, when they should be used and what other consumers say about them. The right product data will be essential. “Data is now your product,” O’Connor told retailers in attendance. One retailer already moving ahead with AI agents is Walmart. This past summer, the Bentonville, Ark.-based retailer rolled out a
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