Best Practices in Leveraging AI, GenAI, and Agentic AI for Retail Operational Workflows

This IDC PeerScape identifies best practices for retailers seeking to apply agentic AI to operational workflows. It focuses on four common challenges: orchestrating fragmented retail data and processes, embedding AI into frontline work, using AI to improve inventory and fresh-product decisions, and governing autonomous actions in sensitive operational environments.Retailers are entering a phase in which the competitive value of AI depends less on experimentation and more on operationalization. The issue is not whether retailers can build pilots, but whether they can connect agents to the data, systems, teams, and controls required to influence day-to-day decisions. Walmart's development of Wally illustrates the emerging use of agentic capabilities for merchandising and inventory decisions. Marks & Spencer's rollout of Microsoft 365 Copilot illustrates how GenAI can improve frontline productivity and decision support. Carrefour's use of AI for supply chain and fresh-product planning shows the value of advanced forecasting and optimization, while Amazon's use of multimodal AI for fulfillment quality and compliance demonstrates the potential of AI-enabled operational automation. Together, these examples show how retailers are building the foundations for more autonomous and agentic operational workflows.The practices discussed in this PeerScape show that agentic AI succeeds when it is deployed around clear operating problems, when users understand its role, when workflows include human oversight, and when retailers measure outcomes such as labor productivity, stock availability, waste reduction, faster decision cycles, improved customer service, and lower operational risk."Agentic AI's real value emerges when it becomes part of the operating model, connecting signals, decisions, actions, and accountability across stores, supply chains, commerce, and customer service. Retailers should start with workflows where AI can reduce decision latency, improve consistency, and free teams from repetitive coordination work while keeping humans responsible for judgment, escalation, and customer impact," says Cristiano Quattrini, senior associate advisor, IDC Retail Insights.