Retail futurist Doug Stephens joins Chris John to unpack what’s actually changing in commerce right now, and what leaders are missing. They discuss the macro shifts shaping retail, including AI, market volatility, and the continued move toward digital consumption, and why many companies are still chasing efficiency while missing the next sources of advantage.

Doug shares one of the core theses behind his upcoming book The Future of Competitive Advantage (June 2): the next edge won’t come from scale or technology alone. It will come from trust, fairness, and intelligence.

They also explore why retail needs to think more like art, how AI is reshaping entry-level work and education, and why the biggest risk of the AI era may not be the technology itself, but what it does to the consumer economy.