SAP unveils AI enhancements for retail customers at National Retail Federation 2026 Big Show

SAP expands AI options for retailers - SiliconANGLE

SAP SE is using the National Retail Federation's 2026 Big Show to outline a set of new artificial intelligence features that embed planning, operations, fulfillment and commerce more tightly into its retail software portfolio. The company said the updates are intended to help retailers manage increasingly complex operations as customer engagement shifts toward AI-driven discovery and automated decision-making. The announcements include new capabilities in data analytics, merchandising, promotions, customer engagement and order management, with most features scheduled to roll out in the first half of 2026. "AI and the power of agentic AI, in particular, is reshaping the way things can be done," said Balaji Balasubramanian, president and chief product officer for customer experience and consumer industries at SAP. "From planning through execution to driving great customer experiences, this is a fully end-to-end closed-loop retail system." A central element of the announcement is a new Retail Intelligence component of the SAP Business Data Cloud. SAP said the offering is designed to unify data from sales, inventory, customers and suppliers across SAP and third-party systems, enabling AI-driven simulations for demand and inventory planning. The system is intended to improve forecast accuracy, reduce manual planning work and lower inventory costs while maintaining service levels. The approach reflects a shift in how retailers must plan for both human and automated traffic, Balasubramanian said. "It's not just human traffic, but bot traffic that they need to plan for," he said. "The battleground for awareness is critical because once it is there, retailers can convert it to drive profitable growth." The new features differ from prior SAP analytics tools by using AI to connect front-end customer engagement with back-end planning and execution. "Organic traffic at the top of the funnel is collapsing, and influence is shifting toward other channels such as answer engines and large language models," he said. "These are influencing where users are going." SAP also announced AI-assisted assortment management within its S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition for retail and fashion customers. The feature allows planners to create or modify assortments using natural language through SAP's Joule assistant. "The biggest cost items retailers have is inventory carrying, distribution and fulfillment," Balasubramanian said. "We want to help them minimize those costs so they have the broadest assortment possible at the best possible prices." While LLMs allow less technical users to plan assortments, SAP has built in safeguards that prevent inappropriate decisions. "Once those guardrails are set, then the systems work within them to understand natural language intent," he said. "We surface those things where intent does not match the guardrails." SAP also introduced sales promotions that integrate SAP's Omnichannel Promotion Pricing software with S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, allowing promotions such as bonus buys to be applied consistently across physical and digital channels. The company is also introducing a Storefront Model Context Protocol server as part of its Commerce Cloud, which it said allows retailers to make storefront data intelligible to AI systems. SAP also announced an Order Reliability Agent within Order Management Services that's designed to identify potential fulfillment issues and help retailers address order status and availability questions before they affect customers. It has been working with customers during development but declined to share specific performance metrics they achieved. The newly announced capabilities will begin rolling out during the first six months of 2026.

SAP Debuts AI Enhancements for Retail Customers | PYMNTS.com

"Retailers face a landscape where AI is no longer optional," Balaji Balasubramanian, SAP's chief product officer for customer experience and consumer industries, said in the release. "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, personalization and growth across every channel and segment." Among the new offerings is the Retail Intelligence solution in SAP Business Data Cloud, set to launch in the first half of the year and designed for retailers and direct-to-consumer businesses, according to the release. The tool "provides accurate demand and inventory planning, leveraging retailers' data from across SAP software and third-party systems to drive profitable growth through actionable, real-time insights," the release said. The company is also rolling out its Order Reliability Agent as part of its larger order management services bundle. Set for release in the second quarter of 2026, the new agent identifies and resolves potential order issues, and helps workers answer common questions about order status, stock availability and fulfillment risks before they affect customers, according to the release. "As customer expectations rise and fulfillment networks grow more complex, retailers need confidence that every order will be delivered as promised, using AI solutions that provide proactive visibility and guidance to help keep operations running smoothly and at scale," the release said. "And as brand visibility shifts in the age of agentic commerce, reliable and consistent shopping experiences are more important than ever to drive sustained customer loyalty and trust." The retail sector is undergoing a shift due to agentic AI, from "assistive to autonomous commerce," PYMNTS wrote this week. While assistive AI, such as chatbots, recommendation engines and search optimization, supports human decision-making, agentic AI could replace elements of that same decision-making process, all the way to its execution.