Three retail tech trends to watch in 2026

For the coming year, retailers should keep their eyes on agentic AI, workforce augmentation and ultrafast delivery.

The holidays are over (though returns season is just heating up) and it’s time to shake off the post-holiday doldrums and get back into the retail technology mindset. As part of that effort, let’s gaze into our crystal balls at three solutions likely to have a big impact between now and Dec. 31:

Agentic AI everywhere

In my year-end Retail Insights column, I called 2025 the year Agentic AI broke in retail. Agentic AI builds upon the prescriptive capabilities of generative AI to streamline enterprise workflows even further by analyzing massive amounts of data in near-real-time and then automatically taking action based on the results. 

Agentic AI has become a prominent feature in all types of retail solutions that streamline and manage workflows in every part of the enterprise. My expectation for 2026 is that it will become a universal feature of retail technology, with agentic AI capabilities as assumed as Internet connectivity.

This will result in workers and customers being able to express their needs in conversational language, which should create higher levels of customer satisfaction as well as employee efficiency.

In addition, it potentially means that a large percentage of lower-level tasks across the enterprise will be performed automatically, with no human input. Retailers need to carefully establish detailed rules and guidelines for agentic systems to follow, with exception reporting for unusual situations that defy normal operations and some level of human oversight. 

Workforce augmentation

2025 was the year where retailers like Amazon publicly admitted AI and automation will in fact result in staffing reductions. In some cases, these reductions may be significant.

However, retailers still face significant shortages in available frontline and warehouse labor, and humans are still very much part of the retail workforce equation. That is why retailers in 2026 will continue utilizing solutions such as AI, automation and mobile apps to help employees accomplish more work, more accurately and more efficiently.

Part of this effort is streamlining employee HR processes so they have more time to dedicate to tasks that benefit the bottom line. Dollar Tree’s deployment of the Legion workforce management platform across its North American fleet of stores and distribution centers is a prime example. 

With access to the Legion app, associates can request schedule adjustments, swap shifts, communicate with their managers, and gain access to their performance rewards and feedback through a single interface.

Meanwhile, Gap is using Google AI to integrate AI agents and human employees. And since 2022 Walmart, which along with its Sam’s Club warehouse club subsidiary has long been a leader in providing associates with apps that streamline and automate various workflows, has been seamlessly integrating Scandit smart data capture software into several of those apps. 

[READ MORE: Walmart equips store associates with mobile AI tools]

Walmart is attempting to optimize operational tasks such as order fulfillment, stock replenishment, out-of-stock detection, product information look-up and receipt checks for self-checkout customers.

Delivery – the quick and the dead

In my 2025 retail technology look ahead column, I listed automated delivery as a trend to keep an eye on. And indeed, the use of solutions such as drones, sidewalk robots and self-driving vehicles to perform last-mile delivery kept growing along with customer expectations for same-day delivery.

This year, I expect automation to be part of a larger trend where retailers leverage every available solution and strategy to get deliveries to customers as soon after they click “buy” as possible. Look for more retailers to follow in the ultrafast delivery footsteps of Tier I leaders like Amazon, which is testing a service called Amazon Now in Seattle and Philadelphia that is its fastest delivery service to date, delivering thousands of household essential items and groceries to customers’ doorsteps in about 30 minutes or less.

To support delivery in a compressed time slot, Amazon is utilizing specialized smaller facilities designed for efficient order fulfillment, strategically placed close to where customers in eligible markets live and work. 

Meanwhile, Target is running an overnight delivery pilot in Cleveland that involves a dedicated sortation center and freelance delivery drivers. Drone delivery also continues growing in use by retailers including Walmart, but 2026 is the year delivery retailers will fall into two categories – the quick and the dead – and any method that enables quickness will be part of the mix.