As AI agents take on more execution, people move up the stack, from tasks to outcomes. I wrote this to explore what that shift really means in practice. Also hear about how Microsoft for Startups is using AI Agents.

Retail Store IQ is not about more dashboards. It’s about turning signals into action at the edge of the store. In this piece, I build on my earlier Retail Store IQ article and explore how sentiment, behavior, context, competition, assortment, inventory, and execution come together to shape better in-store experiences.

Over the past year I have been looking for a startup that can help brands make sense of the fast-moving signals that shape consumer interest. Not by looking at last year’s data, but by reading what customers are paying attention to right now across search, social, creators and other public sources. i-Genie.ai has built one of the most compelling approaches I have seen, turning these external signals into clear insight that helps brands stay ahead of emerging trends.

My 2026 outlook on the technologies I will be watching closely in retail. From Agentic Commerce and Spatial Models to RetailStoreIQ and intention understanding, these are the parts of the intelligence stack that I believe will have a meaningful impact on how the industry operates.

There’s a quiet shift happening in grocery. Protein aisles are expanding, meals are shrinking, and shopper intent is changing faster than most realize.

In my latest post, I explore how CueZen, a Microsoft for Startups Pegasus partner, is helping retailers understand this new shopper and deliver healthier, more personalized journeys.

Reading a Docker article (https://lnkd.in/g_h8BgiP) about microservices sent me down an unexpected rabbit hole. It made me realize there’s a striking parallel between the hidden complexity of microservices and the emerging world of Agentic AI.

From OpenAI’s Instant Checkout to Microsoft’s agent frameworks, Mastercard’s payment agents, NLWEB, and emerging standards like the Agentic Commerce Protocol: the future of shopping won’t start with a click, but with a conversation.This one is for startups, retailers, and anyone building what comes next.

𝑹𝒆𝒕𝒂𝒊𝒍 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆 𝑰𝑸 began as an insight from Manas, who framed it as a way to measure how intelligently a store uses sensors, data, and AI Agents to understand its environment and act with purpose. He also introduced the 𝑭𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆𝒓 𝑺𝒕𝒐𝒓𝒆 concept, a retail-specific evolution of Microsoft’s Frontier Firm model that describes stores operating with near-sentient awareness and autonomy. Our conversations quickly moved from idea to possibility, raising questions about what it means for a store to perceive, model, decide, and coordinate humans, robots, and agents in real time. The more we explored it, the clearer it became that retail is entering a new era. A store that senses. A store that reasons. A store with an IQ.

For someone who remembers life in the 60s, 70s, or 80s, but has no photos to prove what those moments looked like, AI becomes a kind of memory collaborator.

Link to Blog Post: https://lnkd.in/gdXN7fje.

This is an AI Generate Audio TLDR of the Blog Post

I have been thinking a lot about what happens when shoppers are no longer people but agents that negotiate, compare, and decide on our behalf. This new world of hashtag#AgenticCommerce changes everything from product data to content to pricing to market behavior. 

This is an AI-Generated AUDIO TLDR of my blog post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-watching-knowing-new-era-observational-shish-shridhar-jirlc

It's not just dashboards anymore but storyboards that could be podcasts you listen to. Data now talks back. From chat-enabled insights to hashtag#AI-narrated podcasts, conversational interfaces are transforming how organizations use and act on data.This is an AI-Generated AUDIO TLDR of my blog post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-watching-knowing-new-era-observational-shish-shridhar-jirlc

Retailers have become data-rich but insight-poor. They know who their shoppers are, what they buy, when they buy, and even how they move through stores — yet much of this intelligence sits trapped in silos across loyalty programs, digital media, and in-store analytics systems.

Retail Media Networks (RMNs), built to monetize this data, often still operate as fragmented systems — digital screens on one end, campaign dashboards on another, disconnected from the physical reality of the shopper journey.

The result? Missed moments, wasted impressions, and under-optimized ad yield.

The opportunity? To build self-optimizing media ecosystems powered by Multi-Agentic AI, where specialized autonomous agents, each with distinct intelligence, data, and expertise, collaborate seamlessly toward a shared retail goal.

This is an AI-Generated AUDIO TLDR of my blog post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-watching-knowing-new-era-observational-shish-shridhar-jirlc

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐞𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐞𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐚 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐞?In my new blog post, I show how Nimble , YDISTRI, and Omnistream, all Microsoft for Startups Pegasus partners, can work together through an orchestrator to detect competitor moves, rebalance inventory, and update store layouts automatically. It’s what happens when Copilot meets a team of intelligent specialists.

This is an AI-Generated AUDIO TLDR of my blog post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-watching-knowing-new-era-observational-shish-shridhar-jirlc

We’re entering an era where computervision, digitaltwins, and AI models don’t just see, they understand. By combining sensorfusion, agenticAI, and continuous observability, physical environments, from factories to stores, can now learn, optimize, and even self-correct in real time. This shift from human observation to AI-driven process intelligence is transforming how we discover inefficiencies, design workflows, and drive continuous improvement.

This is an AI-Generated AUDIO TLDR of my blog post at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/from-watching-knowing-new-era-observational-shish-shridhar-jirlc

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐀𝐝𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐈𝐬 𝐑𝐞𝐰𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐲

In recent conversations with brand leaders, one theme keeps surfacing: AgenticCommerce is changing everything. As shopper, retailer, and supplier agents start interacting directly, the old playbooks built around advertising and emotional storytelling begin to fade. What takes their place? Data and content.

NOTE: This is an AI Generated Audio TLDR that accompanies my linkedin blog posts at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shishs/

𝐅𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐈𝐝𝐞𝐚 𝐭𝐨 𝐁𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐤𝐭𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡: 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐁𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐬 𝐔𝐬𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐭𝐨 𝐈𝐧𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐁𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐬With Microsoft Discovery, MatterGen, and MatterSim, brands now have a new innovation engine:

➡️ 𝑫𝒊𝒔𝒄𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒚 (https://lnkd.in/guWcPXai) orchestrates the R&D logic, constraints, and decision loops

➡️ 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝑮𝒆𝒏 (https://lnkd.in/grqRKTNx) dreams up novel material candidates tailored to your specs

➡️ 𝑴𝒂𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝑺𝒊𝒎 (https://lnkd.in/gjuT7V-u) simulates performance under real-world stress, durability, wash cycles.

Instead of choosing from what’s already out there, brands can now design the materials they actually need. It means faster development, less waste, and a smarter path to sustainable innovation.

#Retail’s biggest revenue moment is also its biggest resilience test. Neubird AI, Moderne & Arms Cyber, 3 startups from the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus portfolio help retailers stay secure, agile & operational during the holiday surge

What if a chatbot could smile, speak naturally, and engage with human warmth, in a way that builds trust?That’s exactly what we’re exploring.I’m partnering with Mariana Cunha Amaro from Microsoft’s Worldwide Retail Team on a pilot with a retailer, testing what works, what doesn’t, and whether humanized AI can scale. We’re drawing on innovation from startups like D-ID, and Personal AI, alongside Microsoft Research’s own research with VASA-1, to reimagine how humans and AI interact in stores, kiosks, and digital channels. We’ll soon share what we learn, and we’re looking to partner with more retailers who’d like to be part of this exploration. DM me :)

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐞𝐫𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐫𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝, 𝐜𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐞𝐝, 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐬𝐩𝐨𝐤𝐞𝐧: 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐛𝐞 𝐨𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐛𝐲 𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬.In this blog post, I explore how startups in the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus portfolio are shaping the foundations of Agentic Commerce, from new categories like Generative Engine Optimization (GEO) led by Writesonic, to reimagined solution spaces powered by startups such as Omnistream, Nimble, Harmonya, Tembi, SimpliContract, Distyl AI, PersonalAI, and Auger.

Your next billion-dollar idea may not come from your core business, they’ll come from the edges. RetailMedia. Data Monetization. Adjacency plays that turn loyalty, attention, and intelligence into new revenue streams. In this post, I explore how leading brands, and startups from the Microsoft for Startups Pegasus Portfolio are unlocking growth in unexpected places. We can also help host an Outside-In Innovation Session with Startup Founders to uncover new business models and opportunities.