Christine Russo sits down with James Hughes, Retail CTO at Verizon Business, for an onsite conversation recorded at NRF 2026, unpacking how AI, network infrastructure, and immersive technologies are actually reshaping retail operations and in-store experiences.

Hughes breaks down where AI delivers real productivity gains today, from helping store associates locate products faster to enabling immersive customer journeys like virtual try-ons and AI-powered shopping assistants. He explains why storytelling matters when selling AI internally, and why most retail innovation fails without the right connectivity layer underneath it.

The conversation dives into 5G, fixed wireless access, and edge infrastructure as practical enablers, not futuristic hype. Hughes shares real examples of how poor in-store connectivity can derail personalization, retail media activations, and computer vision deployments, and why infrastructure teams must be brought into innovation conversations much earlier.

Russo and Hughes also explore IoT, automation, and computer vision in stores, including how retailers are using data from cameras, beacons, and tags to improve conversion, staff performance, inventory visibility, and loss prevention. The episode closes with a candid look at the tension between CMOs pushing innovation and CIOs protecting core systems, and what it takes to modernize retail technology without disrupting the business.

This episode is a grounded, operator-level look at what it really takes to scale AI in retail, straight from the floor at NRF 2026.

What Just Happened went to NRF 2026 in New York City. Christine Russo sat down live at the RELEX booth with Greg Wilson, VP of Field Strategy at RELEX Solutions, to unpack how AI in retail is finally moving from experimentation to real world deployment.

Wilson explains why RELEX has a structural advantage in the current AI moment. Long before large language models dominated the conversation, the company built deep infrastructure using advanced mathematics, optimization, and exception based decisioning to solve complex retail problems. That foundation now allows RELEX to deploy targeted AI agents that move seamlessly from insight to action, rather than simply flagging issues and leaving teams to piece together solutions on their own.

Russo and Wilson discuss why AI cannot live in silos, and why retail organizations structured around product movement rather than the customer are hitting real limits. As customers themselves become AI enabled and more informed across pricing, promotions, and availability, retailers must respond faster and with greater precision. Wilson makes the case that the real challenge is no longer technology, but organizational change.

The conversation also explores how RELEX is applying AI at the store level, especially in complex areas like fresh grocery, where intuition has historically driven decisions. By equipping store teams with AI powered recommendations and aggregating that intelligence upstream, RELEX is helping retailers improve availability, freshness, and execution in real time.

The episode closes with a pragmatic view of AI’s hype cycle and a clear analogy for how it should work. Large language models act as orchestrators, while specialized agents and tools do the real work. The takeaway is simple. AI delivers value when it is purpose built, interactive, and designed to turn decisions into outcomes at speed.

What Just Happened headed to CES 2026 in Las Vegas. and Christine Russo sat down live on-site with Nathalie Gaveau, Chief Client Officer at Publicis Sapient, to talk about what it really means to move from AI curiosity to AI deployment.

Publicis Sapient sits in a unique position in the market, operating at the intersection of strategy, engineering, data, and design, and moving with a speed that is often missing in large enterprise organizations. Gaveau points to the firm’s DNA as an innovator, from helping create the earliest airline seat booking systems to building some of the first large scale ecommerce platforms. That legacy shows up today in how quickly the company moves from idea to execution, combining deep technical capability with a founder mindset that prioritizes outcomes, not theory.

Russo and Gaveau dig into why CES has become a proving ground for enterprise AI and why strategy has to lead before technology. Gaveau explains that AI is no longer about experimentation or side projects. It is about scaling, driving real ROI, and making sure people actually use the tools being deployed. Without engagement, AI does not learn and does not deliver value.

The conversation centers on data as the foundation for everything. Gaveau is direct about the reality that many large companies are still not AI ready because of fragmented, legacy data systems. She shares how Publicis Sapient approaches this with a founder mindset, prioritizing use cases that deliver near term impact while building toward long term transformation.

Russo and Gaveau also explore the rise of non human customers and what it means when AI agents, not people, are making buying decisions. From agentic experience to the shift from SEO to GEO, they discuss how brands need to rethink discovery, storytelling, loyalty, and perception in a world where agents are shopping on behalf of humans.

The episode closes with reflections on CES themes like companion AI, robotics, and health tech, and why ease of use, speed, and trust determine what actually scales.

AX. Agentic Experience.
This is the phrase I am taking into 2026, and it is where I open my final show of the year.

Christine Russo sat down with Jonathan Arena, CEO of New Generation AI and trykeppler.ai.

Jonathan explains the breakdown of what happens when agents arrive on your brand site. They are trying to read catalogs, understand product attributes and answer real shopper questions. And most websites are not ready for that level of traffic or that style of discovery. And let's not forget behind every agent is a human seeking information and product that fits their need.

Sites obsessively built for CX are not build for AX (Agentic Experience). Pop ups, scripts, PDP clutter and traditional search patterns all get in the way.

So the headline is not that agentic search does not work. It is that retailers have not built a companion experience for agents to understand their products. That is AX. And that is the work that must begin in 2026.

Jonathan laid out the starting point with a level of clarity the industry needs. Identify the agents already reaching your site. Understand what they are asking for. See where your catalog breaks down. From there, create the layer that allows agents to access your product information cleanly and quickly. Once that foundation exists, everything else becomes possible. Better discovery, better conversion, better loyalty and eventually agent driven checkout.

So as we close 2025 and look to 2026 seeking information on what will put you ahead, this is a starting point.

Michaela Wessels CEO and Co-Founder of Style Arcade joined Christine Russo to break down what is arguably one of the most persistent and costly gaps in fashion retail: the inability to forecast at the depth the industry actually needs. Wessels explained how most tools, including those that market themselves as AI based, stop at the category level and cannot address the real issue, which is the constant missed revenue tied to out of stocks by size and by store. Her team quantified forty one million dollars in lost revenue across ten brands in six months, all tied to invisible size level stockouts. Wessels noted that fashion data sets are uniquely small and uneven, which makes generic AI unreliable, and that real forecasting must remain transparent and controllable for users who understand the product and the sales pattern.

Throughout the discussion, Wessels made it clear that Style Arcade was built by people who have worked inside fashion and lived through the manual processes that have held the industry back. She described years spent forecasting hundreds of products in spreadsheets without the ability to model by size or store, which forced planners into overly broad decisions that created both bloated inventory and unnecessary markdowns. Unlike horizontal SaaS platforms that try to retrofit solutions for multiple industries, Wessels believes vertical SaaS built by industry operators is the only model that truly works because it reflects how fashion teams think and how decisions get made. Russo underscored this point by noting that many tech companies lack retail experience entirely, which creates a gap that no amount of engineering can solve.

Wessels also highlighted how Style Arcade is now used far beyond planning teams. Marketers, designers, e commerce leads, and product teams are all using the platform to understand where demand outpaces supply and to trigger reorders with clarity and speed. The tool gives them visibility into what is new, what is selling, where stockouts are suppressing performance, and how much revenue is at stake. Wessels emphasized that modern retail teams want tools that remove the friction of spreadsheets and surface decisions in a way that empowers talent rather than replacing it. With clients ranging from Ralph Lauren to hypergrowth pure plays, she frames the new forecasting product as essential infrastructure for a fashion landscape that can no longer afford to accept missed revenue as part of the job.

Christine Russo, host and creator of What Just Happened, continues to explore brand marketing strategies that work in a retail everywhere world. Russo selected her guest Jenny Coates to discuss the non linear shape of the customer journey and how marketers can build clarity and connection in an environment defined by fragmented attention and unpredictable discovery.

Throughout the conversation, Russo frames the modern customer path as a system without a single entry point. Consumers discover brands through social platforms, micro influencers, video, email, word of mouth and AI driven search, and often arrive through side doors rather than the digital front door. Instead of a predictable funnel, Russo emphasizes that today’s journey moves like a pinball machine, with brand touchpoints acting as the paddles, bumpers and signals that keep the customer engaged and moving.

The discussion highlights why authenticity and consistency are now the most important tools for marketers. Russo examines how brands must be prepared to meet customers wherever they land, how weak touchpoints break momentum, and how retention depends on keeping customers inside a living ecosystem rather than treating purchase as the end of the relationship. They also explore the tension between the human desire for linear frameworks and the nonlinear reality of modern behavior, and the need to build a structured internal plan that still accommodates nonlinear engagement patterns.

The episode reinforces Russo’s point of view that discovery, engagement and loyalty are no longer sequential steps. They are continuous loops shaped by content quality, channel readiness and the strength of a brand’s experience across every entry point. By breaking down how marketers can operate in this environment, Russo continues to lead conversations that map the new rules of brand building in a retail everywhere world.

Christine Russo sits with Anja Sadock of TrusTrace. Anja traced the company’s origins back to an activist effort in India, where the founders witnessed firsthand the environmental toll of textile manufacturing on local farmland. That grassroots motivation grew into a global traceability platform designed to help brands see and prove what’s happening across their supply chains. Today, TrusTrace provides data and verification tools so companies can understand the social and environmental risks embedded in their sourcing—from forced labor to deforestation—and act on them with real evidence rather than assumptions. Anja described this as essential for accountability and impact, not just compliance.

We also discussed the growing regulatory momentum behind traceability, including digital product passports (DPP). While Anja emphasized that most companies are still preparing for the DPP framework, she underscored how it can become a competitive advantage when paired with solid data infrastructure. Rather than fixating on DPP mechanics, she highlighted the bigger picture: traceability as a foundational capability that enables readiness for future regulations, risk management, and even consumer engagement through transparency and repair initiatives. By the time DPPs are fully active toward the end of the decade, brands that have already built credible, data-driven traceability systems will be the ones positioned to lead.

Christine Russo, host of What Just Happened, sits down with Kelsey Ayres, Director of Product Management at Amazon for Buy with Prime and Multi-Channel Fulfillment. Together they explore how Amazon is solving logistics issues and expanding the benefits of Buy with Prime. How? By offering brands the ability to use its powerful fulfillment network beyond the marketplace. Ayres explains how Buy with Prime builds shopper trust and boosts conversions through fast delivery, seamless returns, and easy integrations, while Multi-Channel Fulfillment helps businesses of all sizes streamline operations across platforms like TikTok, Temu, and Shopify. The conversation highlights real-world results, including case studies showing conversion lifts from fast shipping and badges, and underscores how Amazon’s logistics investments are positioning it as not only a retailer but also a leading supply chain partner

Christine Russo, host of What Just Happened, sits down with Jonathan Siboni, founder and CEO of Luxury Insight, often described as the “Bloomberg for luxury.” Together they explore the crossroads facing global luxury brands—ranging from shifting Chinese consumer behaviors and the rise of resale to the pressure of generational leadership changes at industry giants like LVMH, Kering, and Chanel. Siboni explains how data can serve as the new compass for maisons, balancing heritage with the need to decode emerging desires, and weighs in on Louis Vuitton’s bold entry into beauty. The conversation looks ahead at how pricing strategies, youth engagement, and portfolio restructuring will shape the next chapter of luxury.

Christine Russo, Chief Content Officer of What Just Happened, sits with Dave Anderson, Vice President of Product Marketing at ContentSquare.

In this episode, Russo and Anderson explore the balance between automation and empathy in retail’s digital transformation. Anderson emphasizes that AI should not be the outcome, but a tool to enhance personalization and reduce customer frustration. Drawing from ContentSquare’s benchmark report, he notes that 40% of user experiences are marked by frustration—primarily due to errors, speed, and poor mobile optimization—yet simple fixes can drive major improvements in conversion.

Anderson highlights how AI and experience analytics can surface insights that allow brands to shift from “analysis paralysis” to real-time experimentation. He illustrates with examples ranging from ALO Yoga’s mobile checkout optimizations to Spotify’s offline playlists, showing how customer-centric innovation builds loyalty. Both Russo and Anderson stress that empathy, authentic engagement, and human understanding must guide technology’s role in shaping customer journeys.

The conversation also touches on the competitive pressures faced by legacy brands, the rise of mobile applications as personalization hubs, and how companies like Apple continue to set the gold standard for in-store and online experiences. Ultimately, Anderson argues that automation should free teams to focus on creativity, ideation, and building experiences that truly resonate with customers.

What is What Just Happened?
What Just Happened is a thought-leadership series hosted by Christine Russo that explores the fast-moving intersections of retail, technology, and customer experience, featuring insights from industry leaders and innovators.

Who is Christine Russo?
Christine Russo is the Chief Content Officer and creator of What Just Happened, a seasoned media voice, and a connector in retail tech, e-commerce, and brand strategy. She is known for her candid interviews, sharp analysis, and ability to surface meaningful conversations that matter to the industry