Agentic AI is poised for widespread adoption as more organisations harness it to transform operations, enhance productivity, and tackle complex business challenges. However, many CIOs and business leaders remain cautious—experimentation often leads to disillusionment when AI fails to deliver immediate, transformative results.

Join us in a conversation with Kenny Yeo and Adarsh Janakiraman as we uncover real-world use cases, practical implementation advice, and what the future holds.

Tune in to discover:

• Where We Are Today: While organisations recognise AI’s potential, many are restricting adoption to pilot projects. Identifying the right business problems remains a challenge, and scepticism persists due to difficulties in demonstrating clear ROI.
• Real-World Applications: From call centre automation to streamlining software development—plus integrating Vision AI to support field services.
• Key Concerns and Governance: Ensuring responsible AI practices, data security, and preventing AI-driven phishing or hallucinations—while balancing the risk of inaction.
• Future Predictions and Advice: Agentic AI will continue to enhance customer and user experiences and improve organisational efficiency. The cost of experimentation is dropping, fuelled by open-source frameworks. To maximise potential, businesses must collaborate with service providers and experts to identify ROI opportunities and keep pace with rapid innovation.

In this episode of Decoding the Future, Mahesh Krishnan speaks with Vikrant Bhalla from GK Software and Clinton Sham from Fujitsu about their key takeaways from NRF 2025, exploring the impact of AI, hyper-personalisation, and evolving customer experience trends in retail.

• AI in Retail: AI is transforming retail by enhancing customer experiences, preventing loss and theft, and enabling hyper-personalisation. AI-driven solutions, such as computer vision at self-checkouts and targeted in-store promotions, are reshaping customer interactions.
• Customer Experience is Key: Retailers are focusing on seamless, tech-enabled experiences across all channels. Hidden technology, rather than flashy features, is driving customer engagement, ensuring frictionless shopping both in-store and online.
• Retail Safari Insights: The NRF retail safaris highlighted how global retailers are innovating customer journeys by blending digital and physical shopping experiences, showcasing the importance of experiential retail.

Realising the full potential of AI is atop everyone’s priorities. But many companies get stuck in the initial AI adoption, facing challenges with data quality, ethical considerations, and achieving tangible ROI. 

Join us as we speak with Adarsh Janakiraman, ML Specialist from Microsoft's AI Global Black Belt Team, gaining practical advice on navigating the challenges of AI implementation, building ethical AI systems, and real-world examples that will help you navigate your AI journey.

Uncover the:

• Current State of AI Adoption: Challenges of moving beyond Proof-of-Concept (PoC) stages, ensuring data quality, and demonstrating a clear return on investment (ROI).
• Considerations for Building Ethical AI: Strategies for responsible AI development and deployment
• Common AI Implementation Pain Points and a 5-Step Data-to-AI Framework: A practical roadmap for successful AI transformation.
• Real-World Success Stories & Future Trends: Learning from companies achieving significant business outcomes with Data & AI, and the emerging trends that you need to look out for.

In this episode we explore how generative AI and vision AI together can redefine how machines perceive, interpret, and create, offering transformative benefits across industries while presenting new ethical and technical challenges.

• Synergy of Generative & Vision AI: Merging text-based generative intelligence with visual data processing unlocks advanced capabilities for tasks like real-time analysis and content creation.
• Real-World Applications: From gymnastics scoring to public safety, these technologies drive innovation in healthcare, retail, smart cities, and beyond.
• Technical Challenges: Issues like camera placement, lighting, occlusion, and ensuring data quality highlight the complexity of successful implementation.
• Future Skills & Literacy: Understanding AI fundamentals and prompt engineering are vital, as organisations seek professionals who can harness these rapidly evolving tools.

In this discussion we shine the light on how AI and data are reshaping the retail industry by enhancing CX, integrating online and offline channels, and transforming the role of physical stores, while emphasising the importance of transparency and trust.

• AI and Data Optimisation: Retailers are leveraging AI and data to optimise experiences, focusing on personalisation and customer insights, while balancing both online and offline data.
• Omni-channel Integration: The integration of AI in retail is enhancing omni-channel experiences, combining digital and physical touch points to meet evolving consumer expectations.
• Transparency and Trust: Transparency in AI decisions, such as credit limits or product recommendations, is essential to build consumer trust and ensure data privacy.
• Shifting Role of Physical Stores: The role of physical stores is shifting towards experiential hubs, with digital experiences influencing in-store interactions, exemplified by Tesla’s online-first approach.

This episode delves into the evolving landscape of generative AI, exploring advancements in multimodality, agentic AI, knowledge graphs, vendor ecosystems, and practical use cases for businesses and organisations. Join us as we discuss:

• Emerging Technologies: Advancements in multimodal capabilities, agentic AI, and knowledge graphs are redefining how AI solves complex business problems.
• Use Cases: Examples include corporate and government applications such as analysing ownership structures using graph databases and customer service automation with AI agents.
• Vendor Landscape: OpenAI dominates the market, but competitors like Google, Meta, and Cohere offer niche strengths, with smaller language models gaining relevance for specific tasks.
• Learning Resources: Organisations can explore vendor-provided training, LinkedIn Learning, and online platforms like YouTube for foundational knowledge in generative AI and prompt engineering.

In this premiere episode of Decoding the Future, we explore the cutting-edge strategies reshaping retail in the age of digital transformation. Join us as we uncover:

• Adapting to New Consumer Behaviours: How omnichannel strategies and hyper-personalisation are redefining the customer journey.
• AI and Computer Vision in Retail: Unlocking powerful tools for customer insights, theft prevention, and enhancing in-store experiences.
• Innovation vs. Privacy: The delicate balance between leveraging data for growth and staying compliant with strict privacy regulations.
• Cybersecurity in Retail: Why robust security measures are critical to protecting customer trust and preventing churn.

This episode is packed with insights for retail leaders, IT professionals, and anyone navigating the intersection of technology and consumer experience. Don’t miss this deep dive into the future of retail innovation.