Retail’s Future with AI: SAP Announces New Solutions at NRF 2026

SAP has announced a major step forward in retail technology at NRF 2026, unveiling a new generation of AI-driven solutions designed to transform how retailers plan, operate, and engage with customers. By embedding artificial intelligence across its retail portfolio, SAP aims to help businesses achieve greater efficiency, resilience, and trust while delivering improved customer experiences. Balaji Balasubramanian, President and Chief Product Officer for Customer Experience and Consumer Industries at SAP SE, emphasized the significance of this shift:

“Retailers face a landscape where AI is no longer optional. SAP provides one closed-loop, AI-enhanced retail operating system that ties planning, execution and engagement together. We put data and AI at the heart of retail, delivering speed, personalisation and growth across every channel and segment.”

Retail Intelligence for Smarter Planning

One of the key announcements was SAP’s Retail Intelligence solution, part of the SAP Business Data Cloud. This tool is designed to give retailers accurate demand and inventory planning by drawing on data from SAP systems and third-party sources. It will be available in the first half of 2026.

By combining real-time information from sales, inventory, customers, and suppliers, Retail Intelligence uses AI simulations to help planners anticipate outcomes and optimise stock levels. This approach improves forecasting, reduces manual work, lowers costs, and enhances service levels - ultimately supporting seamless omnichannel experiences and stronger customer loyalty. Ananda Chakravarty, Vice President of IDC Retail Insights, commented:

“Retailers are seeking built-in, embedded AI solutions to help balance daily operations, future planning and agility to manage a dynamic market. What sets SAP apart is the holistic nature of its approach, offering an agentic operating system that works in the background, connects data and orchestrates agents. SAP makes it an easy lift for retailers to achieve enterprise-wide intelligence, avoiding the complexity of many point solutions.”

AI Enhancements for Retail Operations

SAP also introduced new AI-assisted assortment management capabilities, enabling planners to create, modify, or retire assortments using natural language through the Joule copilot. This reduces reliance on expert users and speeds up responses to market changes, freeing time for higher-value merchandising decisions.

In addition, SAP announced omnichannel sales promotions in sales orders by integrating SAP Omnichannel Promotion Pricing with SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for retail, fashion, and vertical businesses. This ensures consistent application of advanced promotions like bonus buys across all channels, creating a single source of truth for pricing and promotions.

Further enhancements include deeper merchandising, segmentation, and manufacturing support tailored for fashion wholesalers and manufacturers, laying the foundation for AI-driven fashion operations.

Connecting Retail to AI-Driven Shopping Experiences

As shopping journeys increasingly begin with AI assistants rather than traditional storefronts, SAP is helping retailers connect products, pricing, inventory, and promotions directly to AI-powered discovery and shopping experiences. Through its new storefront MCP server in SAP Commerce Cloud, retailers can make their storefronts intelligible to AI, enabling seamless engagement across platforms - including ChatGPT - and creating a truly channel-less commerce experience.

Driving Loyalty Through Reliable Fulfillment

To address growing complexity in fulfillment networks and rising customer expectations, SAP announced the Order Reliability Agent as part of SAP Order Management Services, scheduled for release in Q2 2026. This AI agent proactively identifies and resolves potential order issues, helping associates address common questions about order status, stock availability, and fulfillment risks before they impact customers.

By combining autonomous AI with human oversight, SAP’s latest innovations aim to empower retailers to plan intelligently, operate efficiently, and deliver exceptional customer experiences - driving loyalty and profitable growth.