The Dirty Martini Archives

Welcome to this month's edition of The Dirty Margarita Newsletter. In honor of Cinco de Mayo and the fact that a "properly made" margarita is a cocktail that is hard to beat - we've changed the name of this month's newsletter!

The Incisiv team just returned from Berlin, the host city of World Retail Congress. More on this below, but in talking with retailers and brands and ingesting the data we released at the conference, we’re framing this issue on a simple phrase: the power of the pause.

The C-suite has spent the last 12-18 months chasing the potential of AI, piloting dozens of meaningful use cases, funding "proofs," and stacking point solutions on top of an operating model that wasn't built for any of it.

Now the sentiment is shifting. It's not because AI is not delivering on many of its promises. It's because it's finally real enough to force a harder question: where does it actually live in the operating model?

That's why this month's Dirty Margarita is built around our latest CxO Study and the post-WRC signal behind it. The most serious executives aren't asking, "What else can we automate?" They're pausing to assess strategic impact, map dependencies, and plan the sequence so AI compounds advantage instead of compounding complexity.

In this edition, we'll unpack what the data says the C-suite is prioritizing now, and the moves I saw the best teams making when the microphones were off.

Pour yourself something strong. The next phase isn't experimentation. It's orchestration.

Enjoy this issue of the Dirty Margarita Digest.

The Dirty Details

We are very excited to have partnered with World Retail Congress and Manhattan to launch the Retail CXO Outlook: Roadmap to 2030. This will be an annual study that will benchmark the sentiments of global C-Suite Retail and Brand executives, released each year at their event.

This month's "power of the pause" isn't just a statement. It's a rational response to a world where the old retail playbook isn't working like it used to, and nothing feels stable enough to confidently replace it.

Incisiv's Retail CXO Outlook: Roadmap to 2030 surveyed 336 C-suite executives across four regions (North America, LATAM, EMEA, APAC) and three formats (Food & Grocery, Apparel & Footwear, Specialty/Department) in Q1 2026.

Here are the 5 takeaways that matter - and what they mean for B2B solution providers who still think "AI pilots" is a strategy.

1) The industry is not in decline, it's in selective posture. That's different.

52% of global CXOs are in selective growth mode, while only 35% are in full defense. What's fascinating is that by regions, these modes vary widely. APAC retailers are leading the charge in growth and innovation while EMEA retailers are taking a much more defensive posture. That mix matters: this isn't a freeze. It's a higher bar.

What it means for B2B solution providers:

• You're not selling into "do more." You're selling into "do fewer things, with higher conviction." If your pitch can't tie to a board-level priority, a measurable operating outcome, and a defensible sequence, you'll get politely shelved.

2) AI conviction is basically universal, readiness is not.

91% of retailers believe AI will be table stakes by 2030. Yet, only 29% of retailers say they've built the data and technology foundations to receive that transformation. And only 11% say they have the AI + data science talent they'll need.

This is the clearest "pause" signal in the entire report: leadership teams are not pausing because they're unsure AI matters. They're pausing because they're finally admitting the foundation is missing.

What it means for B2B solution providers:

• Stop positioning as "the AI layer." Most retailers don't have a stable substrate to run it on. Win by selling the foundation: data quality, governance, integration, and the operating rhythms that turn models into decisions.

3) Discovery is being intermediated upstream and CXOs are spooked (for good reason).

98% are concerned that AI-powered search will reduce their brand visibility. 63% are concerned about AI agents making purchase decisions for shoppers. The report is blunt: discovery shifts first; commerce follows. The window to be "findable" by the next generation of systems is open now.

What it means for B2B solution providers:

• If you sell commerce platforms, PIM, search, content, retail media, or data infrastructure, your wedge is clear: "optimize for agents and humans." That means structured product data, catalog quality, and trust signals AI intermediaries can read - not prettier brand campaigns.

4) The macro squeeze + asymmetric competition has rewritten the terrain.

The external pressure is structural:

• 77% of retailers cite geopolitics/tariffs as a top-3 force;
• 72% cite inflation/margin compression. The competitive pressure is worse:
• 80% cite platform giants as a top threat and 69% cite algorithm-native disruptors.

This is why "waiting for certainty" is an expensive strategy. These forces compound; they don't self-correct.

What it means for B2B solution providers:

• Your ROI model must assume persistent volatility. Position solutions as resilience infrastructure: faster repricing, faster replenishment, faster fulfillment reroutes, faster exception handling. If you can't help a retailer operate under permanent instability, you're competing on features while the buyer is buying survival.

5) Unified commerce isn't a platform decision, it's a store operating model decision.

CXOs see the store as central to 2030:

• 86% of retailers say physical presence is essential to building next-gen relationships.
• 81% say stores have the highest commercial relevance in 2030.

However, only 1 in 3 believe they can out-execute competitors in operational delivery.

And they're explicit that "keeping the promise" is what builds trust: 74% say delivering every order as promised builds consumer trust; 80% say physical + digital must be seamlessly integrated.

What it means for B2B solution providers:

• Stop selling "omnichannel" as a channel story. Sell it as operational architecture: inventory visibility, distributed fulfillment, store workflows, and the ability to execute reliably. The seam between channels is where trust is lost - and that's where you either differentiate or die.

Dive deeper into our cross-industry research and content.

If the CXO Outlook has you thinking about "the power of the pause," this is the practical follow-on: where AI is actually paying off in 2026 - and what it takes to operationalize it.

The Top Five AI Use Cases in Retail for 2026

1. AI-powered personalization: Real-time signals replace segment-based guesswork. The point isn't "more personalization." It's measurable conversion and basket lift when the intelligence is connected to the experience layer. (76% of retailers expect AI-driven personalization at scale to deliver the greatest external ROI impact from AI in marketing.)

2. Intelligent inventory & fulfillment optimization: Autonomous demand sensing turns local events + purchasing signals into earlier inventory moves and smarter routing. (34% anticipate an 11-20% reduction in cost-to-serve from real-time visibility and coordinated execution.)

3. Generative AI for merchandising operations: Content production shifts from weeks to minutes: descriptions, localized copy, lifestyle imagery, video - across thousands of SKUs, without proportional headcount. (64% see task automation as a key internal benefit from AI in marketing.)

4. Computer vision for store operations: Stores gain digital operational intelligence: shelf monitoring, pricing errors, shrink patterns, customer traffic - turning the store into a self-monitoring profit center. (39% face the "markdowns here, out-of-stocks there" problem - an operational blind spot CV can address.)

5. AI-powered pricing & margin intelligence: Dynamic pricing protects profitability in real time by reading competitive pricing, elasticity, inventory positions, and cost structures. (53% expect AI to deliver significant marketing outcomes within 24 months, yet only 12% feel fully prepared for large-scale AI adoption.)

The pattern across all five is the same: AI value shows up when it's embedded into execution - not when it lives as a slide deck, a pilot, or a standalone tool.

JELLO SHOT!!

I'm not sure "conference recap" is the right label for World Retail Congress in Berlin - it felt more like a global C-suite working session that just happened to have a stage.

Here are the moments (and signals) I'm still carrying home:

• A true executive room. This wasn't a vendor carnival. The attendee mix was genuinely global and C-suite heavy. The environment was organic, the conversations happened everywhere: hallways, breaks, the bar. No forced 1:1 matchmaking. It made the whole thing more casual, more educational, and frankly more useful.
• AI is no longer "a track." It's the agenda. At times the content felt AI-heavy but there is no escaping the impact it is having on the industry. The C-suite isn't asking if AI matters. They're asking where it fits in the operating model, what it replaces, and what it unlocks. That's why they want to talk about it... over and over.
• Zalando was the clearest proof that this is real. On the pre-event tour, I saw AI in production, not in a lab. They've converted 100% of SKUs from static images into 3D and video using AI, and the experiences are getting truly personalized: backgrounds and settings shifting dynamically based on shopper profile. The most practical application? Returns reduction. Their AI-enabled body scanning and virtual fitting rooms keep improving and expanding in capability.
• The underrated advantage of a 750-1,000 person event: intimacy. Big enough to be meaningful, small enough to be human. Breaks were easy to mingle. The hotel bar was hopping late into every evening. Relationships got built and business got done, without the usual conference friction.

The takeaway for me: when the room is senior enough and the format is loose enough, executives stop repeating talking points and start sharing what they're actually trying to solve. And right now, "AI" is just the headline. The real conversation is execution.

Straight from the Shaker

Get practical insights and best practices straight from our industry experts as we shake up and serve up our knowledge to help you improve your go-to-market strategies. We share tips each month to help you stay ahead of the game.

The Power of the Pause: Stop Chasing Use Cases. Start Designing the AI Operating Model.

If you sell into retail right now, you've probably had the same whiplash conversation three times in one week:

• One CXO wants "AI everywhere."
• One wants "prove ROI in 90 days."
• One is quietly asking, "Where does this actually live in our operating model?"

That last question is the one that matters. And it's why we keep coming back to the power of the pause.

To be clear: We're not anti-use-case. Most vendors are use-case specific, and that's often a feature, not a bug. The mistake is pretending a pile of pilots becomes an AI strategy by osmosis. It doesn't. It becomes a backlog of demos.

Here's a framework to think about if you're running B2B marketing for a retail tech vendor right now, especially if your product is anchored to a specific use case:

1. Position the use case as the entry point, not the destination. Don't sell "AI personalization." Sell the operating posture: "We help you move from segment guesswork to real-time decisioning." Don't sell "computer vision." Sell the outcome: "We remove store blind spots that create markdowns here and out-of-stocks there." The use case is the door. The operating model is the room.

2. Name the dependency stack before the buyer finds it the hard way. CXOs are pausing because they've funded enough point solutions to know the pattern: weak data, messy workflows, unclear ownership. Your job is to surface the prerequisites in plain English. "To get value, you need A (data), B (process), C (authority). If one is missing, the ROI stalls." That's not risk, it's credibility.

3. Give marketing a proof path that isn't a science project. If you can't articulate "week 2," "day 30," and "quarter 1" outcomes, your buyer assumes the pilot will never scale. Package a tight proof plan: what gets instrumented, what changes operationally, what the success metric is, and who owns it. Clarity beats ambition.

4. Respect the use-case reality, but widen the narrative. Most retailers don't need 25 AI initiatives. They need 2-3 that compound. Help the buyer see where your use case fits: what it unlocks upstream, what it depends on downstream, and how it connects to fulfillment and customer trust. That's "the pause" in action: sequencing instead of collecting.

The move here isn't to stop talking about use cases. It's to stop talking about them like they're a strategy.

On the House

• The Endless Aisle of 2026: AI's Role in Creating a Seamless Journey
  Why it's useful: strong language for positioning orchestration as the differentiator (not catalog breadth). Easy to translate into messaging for inventory, fulfillment, and CX platforms.
• The Inference Economy: Scaling AI for Retail Success
  Why it's useful: if your product team keeps saying "we have models," this gives marketing the missing middle: why inference (live execution) is where value shows up.

Second Round - Incisiv on the Road…..

The second quarter is chock full of activity. We hope to see you at one or more of these industry events.

Incisiv is partnering with The Lead Summit, May 20-21, in New York City! The Lead Summit brings 3,000+ attendees and 150+ speakers from brands and retailers such as Primark, Steve Madden, Columbia, SHEIN, Marquee Brands, David Yurman, and many more!

Brand and Retail friends of Incisiv are welcome to attend for FREE! Please add our name in the ‘how did you hear about us’ field when you register!

We’re thrilled to share this special offer for retailers, you can register HERE.

For Non-Brand, Non-Retail friends, you can register HERE for 25% off:

See you May 20-21 in NYC!

(SOLD) New York Community Dinner Series: In 2026, we will be producing four unique executive dinners designed to spark conversation and build community. Starting in May and in each subsequent quarter, we’ll select a critical industry theme and use that as the discussion driver.

• The Rise of the Agents (Sold): Where is Agentic AI going and which use cases will deliver the most value to your business?
• Bringing the sexy back to the store (Sold): What is the right mix of art and science in the store environment, and how important are the people who run it?
• What does digital transformation even mean anymore? (Sold): The state of the union in which digital technologies are continuing to impact e-commerce, supply chains, and stores.
• Whose supply chain is it anyway? (Sold): Few functions have risen to more importance than Supply Chains. How can a healthy supply chain make an impact on margins and provide a better customer experience?

We are offering the opportunity for one partner per event to join us. For more information, contact Mara Dosso at mara.dosso@incisiv.com

Incisiv is heading to Shoptalk Europe — and we're going all in.

• On Stage, our Chief Insights Officer, Gaurav Pant, is moderating "Going 'Glocal': Global Ambition, Local Execution" — a session built for retailers and consumer brands navigating international growth. How do you stay globally authentic while becoming locally relevant? Gaurav and leaders from Vuori and ETAM will break it down with a practical framework for scaling with both ambition and precision. Thursday, June 11 | 9:50–10:30 AM | Track 4: Growth Models & Markets
• The Speakeasy at Shoptalk Europe 2026 — An Executive Dinner: We're hosting an intimate evening for senior retail leaders on June 10 at Nobu Barcelona, in partnership with Manhattan Associates and Braze. We have 1 sponsorship left! Expect sharp conversations, great company, and zero fluff. Learn more here.

For more information on the final sponsorship, contact Mara Dosso at mara.dosso@incisiv.com

Not registered yet? Join us in Barcelona — use our link for 15% off your pass: https://register.visitcloud.com/survey/1gqkzd9ox4298?actioncode=MARKETINGKASSENSZONE

If you're attending, let's connect. Drop a comment, send us a DM, or find us on the floor.

Client Conference Round-up - Here’s where some of the Incisiv Team will be in Q2 - If you’re headed here, reach out and we’ll buy you a coffee!

Questions? Want to chat? Here is a combined calendar to book a time.